Christian 
Americanization 


^  T'cish.  /or 
theOiutthes 


Charles  A.  Brooks 


BR  115  .P7  B7  „ 

Irooks,  Charles  Alvin,  187 

Christian  Americanization 


Press  Illustrating  Service  ©  PJioto  by  A.  T.  Beals 

Organized  Play  Aids  Americanization 
1.   Park  games  and  contests  convey  American  ideals  to  Chinese 

and  other  children  of  the  newcomers. 
A  street  party  creates  the  community  spirit  that  draws  together 

the  new  members  of  Uncle  Sam's  Family. 


DEC  13  1920 


GHRISTIAN^JS£<L?5S2^ 
AMERICANIZATION 

A  TASK  FOR  THE  CHURCHES 


BY        y 
CHARLES  ALVIN  BROOKS 

SECRETARY,  CITY  AND   FOREIGN-SPEAKING  MISSIONS 

OF  THE  AMERICAN  BAPTIST  HOME 

MISSION  SOCIETY 


Homa  Miss)Ovn  CH-uvdv  Cour3i 


Published  Jointly  by 

COUNCIL  OF  WOMEN  FOR  HOME  MISSIONS 

AND 

MISSIONARY  EDUCATION  MOVEMENT  OF  THE 

UNITED  STATES  AND  CANADA 


Copyright,  1919,  by 

Council    of   Women    for    Home    Missions 

and 

Missionary  Education   Movement 

of  the  United  States  and  Canada 


To  THE  Memory  of 

MY  FATHER  AND  MOTHER 

Who  Exemplified  the  Principles 

This  Book  Endeavors  to  Interpret 


CONTENTS 

Foreword xi 

I     The  Present  Issue 3 

II     America's  Genius  for  Assimilation 21 

III     The  Language  Question 43 

IV     Arrested   Assimilation 69 

V     The  Path  of  Progress lOi 

VI     The  Price  of  National  Unity 133 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

Organized    Play   aids  Americanization Frontispiece 

In   New  York — the  City  of   Many   Nations 28 

Neighborhood  Mothers'  Clubs  help  foreign-born  women  52 

The  Y.  M.  C.  A.  takes  instruction  into  the  factories.  .  .  76 

Classes  and  clubs  in  the  churches  help  the  children 

from  foreign-speaking  homes 106 

Disabled  American  Soldiers  learn  English 

in  U.  S.  Hospitals 138 


ix 


FOREWORD 

UNIFICATION  of  effort  for  a  common  cause  is  per- 
haps the  most  significant  trend  of  the  day.  In  ac- 
cordance with  this  modern  spirit,  two  agencies  which 
have  formerly  issued  home  mission  text-books  have  united 
this  year  in  publishing  one  book.  These  agencies  are  the 
Council  of  Women  for  Home  Missions  and  the  Missionary 
Education  Movement,  which,  as  is  well  known,  represents 
the  interests  of  the  Home  Missions  Council. 

The  theme  of  this  book  is  one  which  is  giving  great  con- 
cern to  our  national  government  and  to  all  those  agencies 
and  people  who  realize  the  necessity  of  quickened  effort 
toward  national  unity.  It  is  an  especially  important  theme 
at  this  time,  when  America  occupies  so  conspicuous  a  place 
in  world  influence  and  power,  while  within  her  own  borders 
press  social  problems  of  largest  magnitude. 

One  language,  one  flag  is  much — but  it  is  not  enough  for 
the  highest  national  unity  and  expression.  There  must  be 
such  an  appreciation  of  and  participation  in  the  spirit  of 
America  as  shall  release  the  largest  spiritual  values  for  the 
betterment  of  the  social  order  in  the  United  States,  create 
a  compelling  national  conscience  capable  of  making  this 
country  fine  and  strong  in  self-control,  and  give  it  exalted 
conceptions  and  standards  of  human  relationships.  Only 
through  the  contagion  of  Christian  thinking  and  living  can 
this  be  accomplished.  The  church  of  Christ  must  assume  a 
dominant  place  in  this  effort  and  address  itself  definitely 
with  profound  earnestness  and  purpose  to  this  mighty  task. 
It  is  with  these  deep  convictions  concerning  the  relation  of 
the  church  to  Americanization  that  Christian  Americaniza- 
tion \    A  Task  for  the  Churches  is  sent  forth. 

Publication  Committib. 


INTRODUCTION 

DOWN  at  Land's  End  is  an  interesting  house  which 
bears  the  legend  "This  is  the  last  house  in  Eng- 
land." On  the  south  side  of  the  house  one  finds 
another  inscription  which  reads,  "This  is  the  first  house  in 
England." 

Much  depends  upon  the  point  of  view.  Every  intelligent 
American  has  "views"  on  the  subject  of  Americanization 
and  the  status  of  the  people  whom  we  class  indiscriminately 
as  "foreigners."  This  book  is  a  plea  for  the  Christian  and 
universal  point  of  view,  which  the  author  believes  is  not  only 
wholly  consistent  with  the  truest  Americanism,  but  the  only 
point  of  view  which  is  truly  consistent. 

Migration  has  been  the  habit  of  the  race  from  the  dawn 
of  history.  It  has  been  one  of  the  most  potent  factors  in 
the  development  of  the  race  and  in  the  shaping  of  the  social 
life  and  institutions  of  the  peoples  among  whom  the  new- 
comers have  settled.  The  most  radical  migratory  movement 
in  history  is  American  immigration.  America  has  been  built 
up  by  a  process  of  immigration.  Jamestown  and  Plymouth 
Rock,  as  well  as  Ellis  and  Angel  Islands,  are  in  the  long 
view  of  history  alike  landing  stages  for  prospective  new 
Americans.  It  is  of  great  importance  that  we  shall  under- 
stand that  America  is  not  yet  finished.  She  is  still  in  the 
making.  In  the  light  of  recent  events  we  need  to  restudy 
our  history,  that  we  may  have  a  true  perspective  by  which 
to  understand  present-day  affairs.     It  has  become  easy  for 

1 


us  during  the  past  four  years  to  think  in  international  terms. 
We  need  not  only  the  international  point  of  view,  but  what 
is  more  fundamental — the  universal,  that  is,  the  Christian 
point  of  view. 

The  universal  point  of  view  will  enable  us  to  understand 
that  America  has  a  missionary  destiny.  We  shall  be  able 
to  think  of  all  races  with  which  we  are  dealing  as  the  chil- 
dren of  God  and  recognize  the  obligation  of  the  stronger  to 
serve  the  weaker.  It  will  enable  us  to  see  our  generation 
against  the  background  of  history  and  to  see  all  history'  in 
the  light  of  the  unfolding  purpose  of  God  to  establish  his 
kingdom  in  the  world.  If  we  can  gain  and  steadily  hold 
this  point  of  view,  we  shall  not  be  content  to  think  of  the 
foreigner  as  many  of  us  have  been  accustomed  to  think 
of  him ;  but  against  the  background  of  his  past,  with  its 
repression  and  lack  of  opportunity,  we  shall  see  our  national 
task  as  world  service,  in  the  interest  of  world  unity,  under 
the  sway  of  the  principles  and  ideals  of  the  kingdom-  of 
God.  Only  then  shall  we  make  real  the  poet's  vision,  when 
he  beheld: 
" .  .  .  the    standards    of     the     peoples     plunging     thro'     the 

thunderstorm ; 
Till  the  war-drum  throbb'd  no  longer,  and  the  battle-flags 

were  furl'd. 
In  the  Parliament  of  man,  the  Federation  of  the  world." 


CHRISTIAN  AMERICANIZATION 

A  TASK  FOR  THE  CHURCHES 
CHAPTER  I 

THE  PRESENT  ISSUE 

NOT   long   ago   the   editor   of    Viereck's    Weekly,   in 
resentment  against  an  article  which  had  appeared 
in  The  Atlantic  Monthly,  referred  to  that  magazine 
as  "a  curious  ghost  of  a  forgotten  America." 

The  Atlantic,  a  little  time  before,  had  modestly  called 
attention  to  its  one  hundredth  anniversary.  It  might,  there- 
fore, naturally  suggest  the  ghosts  of  forgotten  things,  the 
fashions  and  customs  which  pass  with  the  years.  But  the 
valiant  defender  of  the  German  fatherland  evidently  meant 
this  innuendo  to  reflect  not  so  much  upon  the  magazine  as 
upon  that  America  of  which  The  Atlantic  has  always  been 
so  truly  an  exponent.  The  taunt  presents  a  startling  chal- 
lenge. We  are  forced  to  ask  ourselves  honestly:  Is  that 
America  whose  spirit  and  ideals  are  reflected  in  a  magazine 
like  The  Atlantic  a.  vanished  or  vanishing  America?  Has  it 
been  or  is  it  being  replaced  by  an  America  truly  represented 
by  Viereck's  Weekly?  Who  are  the  typical  Americans:  the 
essayists  and  poets,  the  scholars  and  statesmen,  who  repre- 
sented The  Atlantic  of  the  past  generation,  or  men  like  the 
editor  of  Fierce k^s  Weekly''?     This  is  what  lies  under  the 

3 


4  CHRISTIAN  AMERICANIZATION 

surface  of  the  present  issue.  This  is  really  the  heart  of  it. 
This  is  the  spiritual  significance  of  Americanization. 

America's  Judgment  Day.  The  war  arrested  our  at- 
tention and  focussed  it  upon  the  vital  question  of  national 
unity.  It  did  not  so  much  create  this  issue  as  it  disclosed 
and  accentuated  it.  Now  that  the  war  has  ended,  the  issue 
is  unchanged. 

For  a  number  of  years  clear-sighted  and  socially  minded 
men  and  women  have  discerned  the  issue  and  have  sought 
to  arrest  public  attention  and  arouse  the  public  conscience  to 
its  meaning.  Before  the  war  the  government  had  been 
making  a  fresh  study  of  conditions  growing  out  of  immigra- 
tion. Labor  leaders  had  agitated  for  restriction,  but  they 
were  suspected  of  selfish  motives.  Social  workers  and  mis- 
sionary leaders  had  sought  to  enlist  the  interest  of  their 
constituencies  with  some  degree  of  success.  But  Josiah 
Strong  used  to  say  that  the  average  man  cannot  see  a  crisis 
until  it  has  arrived;  and  this  has  been  true  regarding  this 
issue  with  which  we  are  concerned. 

Now,  at  last,  the  nation  is  fully  awake.  It  is  not  so  cer- 
tain, however,  that  it  appreciates  the  significance  of  the 
problem  or  understands  the  deep  fundamental  issue  involved 
or  the  principles  upon  which  these  problems  must  be  solved 
if  they  are  to  be  solved  right. 

Generous  Hospitality.  In  one  hundred  years  we  have 
admitted  more  than  thirty  millions  of  people  to  our  shores. 
In  more  recent  years  some  restrictions  have  been  enforced  by 
which  patently  undesirable  elements  might  be  debarred  from 
entrance.  But  speaking  in  general  terms,  our  doors  have 
been  very  wide  open,  especially  on  the  eastern  frontier. 


THE  PRESENT  ISSUE  5 

Now  the  wisdom  or  unwisdom  of  this  hospitality,  so  free- 
ly accorded  to  all  the  people  of  the  world  who  had  the  means 
to  come,  is  being  put  to  the  supreme  test.  The  war  revealed 
the  extent  to  which  America  has  succeeded  or  failed  in  as- 
similating these  alien  elements  and  moulding  them  to  her 
standard.  There  were  many  evidences,  which  had  long  ago 
convinced  those  who  had  eyes  to  see,  that  many  of  these  new- 
comers were  untouched  by  the  wholesome  American  in- 
fluences and  were  still  as  foreign  as  the  day  they  landed. 
But  how  completely  out  of  touch  they  were,  the  nation  was 
not  able  to  comprehend  until  a  crisis  was  precipitated  by 
the  war. 

There  is  another  side  to  this.  There  is  much  gratifying 
and  heartening  evidence  that  leaves  us  not  without  hope. 
But  we  must  focus  our  attention  upon  the  weak  spots  in 
our  national  life  which  have  been  brought  to  light  by  the 
war. 

Foolish  Optimism.  The  war  has  shown  us  the  folly  of 
easy-going  complacency.  We  had  taken  many  things  for 
granted.  We  had  assumed  cheerfully  that  just  to  breathe 
the  air  of  America  or  to  tread  the  soil  of  America  was 
guaranteed  to  work  a  miracle,  to  effect  an  instantaneous 
change  whereby  a  man  or  woman,  reared  under  wholly  dif- 
ferent conditions,  was  certain  to  become  an  American.  It 
was  supposed  to  be  an  automatic  process.  Was  not  America 
a  "melting  pot"?  We  were  assured  that,  while  we  went 
gaily  about  our  business  of  making  money  and  having  a  good 
time,  the  *'melting  pot"  could  be  relied  upon.  We  quoted 
glibly  instances  of  splendid  transformations  of  men  who  had 
arrived  abscure  immigrants  and  later  had  become  leading 


6  CHRISTIAN  AMERICANIZATION 

Americans.  It  was  assumed  that  these  were  typical  cases, 
and  so  we  lived  on  in  a  fool's  paradise.  The  war  has  cured 
us  of  absurd  optimism. 

Indifference.  But  something  worse  than  absurd  op- 
timism has  been  disclosed.  The  war  has  shown  us  our 
criminal  indifference.  For  as  a  nation  we  have  been  largely 
indifferent.  Much  of  our  optimism  was  a  salve  to  our  con- 
science for  our  wicked  neglect.  As  long  as  this  thing  did 
not  touch  us  too  closely,  we  could  remain  comfortably  un- 
disturbed. If  we  employed  immigrants,  we  did  not  concern 
ourselves  with  what  happened,  so  long  as  there  was  an 
ample  supply  of  cheap  labor  to  be  had  w^hen  it  was  needed. 
We  had  no  anxiety.  What  unemployment  involved,  how 
the  imimigrant  lived,  what  his  presence  signified  to  the  life 
of  the  community,  and  the  grave  peril  of  our  neglect;  all 
these  things  did  not  cause  us  much  concern. 

Now  many  of  those  who  were  most  indifferent  have  been 
transformed  into  the  bitterest  enemies,  blindly  and  indis- 
criminately opposed  to  everything  that  smacks  of  foreign 
antecedents.    At  least  we  are  done  w^Ith  indifference.. 

Practical  Democracy.  The  practical  value  of  our 
democratic  ideals  has  been  put  to  a  severe,  if  not  to  the 
supreme,  test.  When  in  1776  we  proclaimed  our  faith  in 
democracy,  we  were  a  small  and  comparatively  homogeneous 
people,  largely  rural  and  of  high  average  intelligence  com- 
pared with  Europe.  Now  we  represent  an  incredible  num- 
ber of  racial  stocks,  a  heterogeneous,  polyglot,  industrial 
people,  with  a  startling  increase  in  illiteracy  in  many  of  those 
states  which  had  most  to  do  with  promulgating  the 
Declaration.     It  is  not  strange  that  some  of  us  have  mis- 


THE  PRESENT  ISSUE  7 

givings  and  some  of  us  heartburnings,  when  we  take  a  sober 
and  impartial  survey  of  the  practical  workings  of  our  demo- 
cratic system.  But  here,  too,  if  we  have  vision  and  faith, 
the  war  has  not  left  us  without  hope. 

Loyalty  Tested.  Most  important  to  the  popular  mind 
is  the  test  which  the  war  furnished  for  gauging  the  loyalty 
of  the  adopted  sons  of  America. 

The  degree  of  assimilation  which  was  apparent,  the  use 
of  the  English  language,  the  participation  in  the  life  of  the 
community  in  normal  times;  these  things  were  no  guarantee 
of  heart  loyalty  to  America.  The  declaration  of  intention 
to  become  citizens,  which  had  involved  an  oath  to  the  effect 
that  the  candidates  for  citizenship  were  "attached  to  the 
principles  of  the  constitution  of  the  United  States,"  was  no 
longer  presumptive  evidence  of  undivided  allegiance.  Citi- 
zenship, which  had  involved  an  oath  that  the  citizen  would 
"support  and  defend  the  constitution  and  laws  of  the  United 
States  of  America  against  all  enemies,  foreign  and  domestic, 
and  bear  true  faith  and  allegiance  to  the  same,'*  was  no 
longer  accepted  as  conclusive  proof  of  loyalty.  The  supreme 
test  had  come,  and  what  had  seemed  a  remote  contingency 
when  the  oath  was  sworn  became,  for  hundreds  of  thous- 
ands, an  agonizing  dilemma. 

Without  doubt,  this  test  has  appealed  tremendously  %o  the 
popular  imagination,  and  much  injustice  has  been  done  to 
many  true  Americans  who  were  under  the  necessity  of 
proving  their  loyalty  because  some  others  had  failed  to 
keep  "true  faith  and  allegiance."  It  is  reassuring  to  our 
faith  that  for  every  man  who  failed  to  meet  this  supreme 
test  thousands  met  it  without  wavering. 


g  CHRISTIAN  AMERICANIZATION 

A  Test  of  Sincerity.  Further,  the  war  has  furnished 
a  test  of  the  sincerity  of  the  older  Americans.  We  have 
experienced  an  awakened  interest  in  these  matters  which  is 
truly  gratifying.  How  genuine  is  our  confidence  in  our 
institutions?  How  deep  is  our  interest  in  this  foreign 
humanity?  How  much  will  we  sacrifice?  What  price  are 
we  willing  to  pay  to  save  America  from  failure  to  meet  her 
opportunity?  We  have  honestly  to  ask  ourselves:  Does  our 
new-born  interest  in  the  people  of  foreign  birth  arise  from 
love  or  fear?  Is  it  enlightened  self-interest  or  a  new  vision 
of  their  worth?  Is  it  repentance  for  past  neglect  or  a  new 
expediency?  Is  it  because  we  need  the  immigrant  in  our 
business  or  because  we  have  discovered  that  perhaps  he  may 
enrich  the  spiritual  life  of  America  and  help  us  to  realize  our 
ideals?  These  are  searching  questions  which  we  may  not 
like  to  face  but  which  we  cannot  escape.  Sentimentality  can- 
not meet  this  test.  Nothing  but  genuineness  and  sincerity 
will  avail. 

Important  Definitions.  Americanization  is  the  achieve- 
ment of  national  unity  for  world  service  upon  the  plane  of 
our  highest  ideals.  It  is  an  unwavering  and  united  progress 
toward  the  goal  of  those  ideals  which  we  confess  we  have 
not  yet  attained,  but  for  which  we  are  still  striving. 

We  need  to  see  clearly  that  there  are  both  national  and 
local  aspects,  both  ideal  and  practical  bearings  of  this  issue. 
In  its  larger  aspects,  Americanization  means  the  extension 
of  our  ideals,  of  the  American  spirit,  and  of  our  language 
to  every  quarter  and  every  community,  until  there  shall  re- 
main no  foreign  colonies  untouched  by  the  full  currents  of 
our  American  life  or  out  of  harmony  with  the  rest  of  Amer- 


THE  PRESENT  ISSUE  9 

ica.  In  its  local  and  more  intimate  aspect,  in  which  it  comes 
home  to  every  one  of  us,  Americanization  is  the  extension 
and  deepening  of  the  community  spirit  until  we  shall,  as 
a  democracy,  be  able  literally  and  spiritually  to  speak  the 
same  language  and  to  cooperate  for  ideal  ends. 

Americanization  means  the  attainment  of  a  common  meet- 
ing-place and  the  mutual  recognition  of  the  worth  of  all 
men  and  women  of  good-will  who  make  up  the  community, 
regardless  of  their  antecedents.  On  the  part  of  peoples  of 
foreign  antecedents,  it  means  the  appreciation  of  what  Amer- 
ica stands  for  and  a  full  and  hearty  acceptance  of  that 
standard.  On  the  part  of  Americans  of  older  stock,  it  means 
a  recognition  of  the  worth  of  these  newer  comers  and  an 
appreciation  of  their  ability  to  enrich  our  American  life. 
On  the  part  of  the  new  Americans,  it  means  the  unreserved 
acceptance  of  the  duties,  as  well  as  the  rights,  of  American 
citizenship  and  the  responsibilities  of  an  absolute  and  un- 
divided allegiance  to  America.  On  the  part  of  older  Amer- 
icans, it  means  a  sincere  and  unselfish  undertaking  to  em- 
body, to  interpret,  and  to  practise  the  ideals  and  spirit  of 
American  democracy  in  all  our  relationships  with  the  people 
we  shall  have  ceased  to  think  of  as  foreigners. 

Confusing  the  Issue.  Americanization  is  not  a  war 
issue.  If  the  war  had  not  occurred,  the  same  necessity  which 
we  have  had  revealed  so  vividly  to  us  would  have  existed. 
It  has  not  passed  with  the  passing  of  the  war.  The  danger 
is  that  we  shall  let  the  whole  matter  drop  now  that  the  war 
is  over.  The  war  has  made  it  both  easier  and  more  difficult 
to  achieve  our  ideal ;  easier  because  it  has  revealed  our  weak- 
nesses, more  difficult  because  of  the  bitterness  engendered. 


10  CHRISTIAN  AMERICANIZATION 

Bitterness  has  not  helped  the  most  difficult  situations,  and  of 
this  we  are  to  be  more  and  more  conscious  as  the  tension 
relaxes. 

Americanization  is  not  the  concern  of  any  particular  race. 
We  have  been  at  war  with  the  Central  Powers,  but  it  is 
not  merely  some  of  the  subjects  of  the  Central  Powers  who 
have  failed  to  measure  up  to  the  demands  of  the  situation. 
Americanization  is  concerned  with  foreignism,  of  whatever 
racial  stock  or  quarter.  Let  us  not  lose  sight  of  this  dis- 
tinction, for  it  is  important. 

It  is  not  merely  a  matter  of  language  or  easy  familiarity 
with  American  customs.  We  shall  consider  the  important 
matter  of  language  in  a  separate  chapter.  What  we  need  to 
rid  ourselves  of  is  the  misconception  that  the  use  of  a  for- 
eign language  Is  presumptive  evidence  of  an  un-American 
spirit,  or  that  the  easy  or  natural  use  of  English  is  a  guaran- 
tee of  the  inner  dominion  and  sway  of  the  American  spirit. 
Americanization  is  not  a  demand  for  the  repudiation  of  any- 
thing in  one's  ancestral  heritage  that  is  not  inconsistent  with 
or  alien  to  the  spirit  of  America.  This,  too,  Is  contrary  to 
the  general  Impression. 

Americanization  does  not  involve  hatred  or  contempt  of 
other  nations,  though  there  is  a  wide-spread  misapprehension 
that  it  does.  Many  have  misinterpreted  the  slogan,  "Amer- 
ica First,"  as  the  United  States  version  of  "Deutschland 
uber  AUes."  Nationalism  Is  not  antagonistic  to  nor  Incon- 
sistent with  the  truest  Internationalism.  Many  of  the  truest 
patriots  are  the  missionaries  of  the  finest  world  fraternity. 
Mazzini,  the  Italian  statesman  and  patriot,  has  given  this 
beautiful   expression   to   the  truth:   "Every   people   has   Its 


THE  PRESENT  ISSUE  11 

special  mission  which  will  cooperate  toward  the  fulfilment 
of  the  general  mission  of  humanity.  That  mission  con- 
stitutes its  nationality.  Nationality  is  sacred.*'  No  man 
who  truly  loves  his  own  country  will  despise  or  hate 
the  country  of  his  fellow  man.  A  man's  love  of  his 
own  wife  or  children  is  the  basis  of  his  regard  for  the 
families  of  others. 

Americanization  is  not  the  equivalent  of  nativism.  Race 
pride  readily  degenerates  into  race  prejudice.  National 
pride  may  easily  pass  into  that  ignoble  and  wholly  unworthy 
thing  which  we  know  as  nativism ;  that  is,  a  selfish  exclusion 
from  consideration  and  participation  in  our  privileges  of  all 
people  except  those  who  by  accident  of  birth  were  born  in 
our  country  or  in  our  state  or  in  our  locality.  Nativism  is 
a  primitive  instinct,  unworthy  of  modern  civilization.  The 
Chinese  used  to  call  all  others  "foreign  devils";  it  was  na- 
tivism which  inspired  the  Boxer  uprisings.  The  Greeks 
considered  all  others  "barbarians."  The  savage  regards  a 
stranger  as  an  enemy.  In  some  sections  of  America  this 
instinct  persists.  In  one  period  of  our  history,  nativism  was 
made  a  political  issue,  and  the  American,  or  Know 
Nothing,  Party  elected  some  members  of  Congress  on  a 
platform  which  contained  sentiments  against  "foreigners" 
which  now  have  become  freshly  current. 

Of  all  people  in  the  world  Americans  should  be  freest 
from  this  selfish  spirit.  Yet  it  is  well  known  that  some  of 
the  most  intolerant  "nativists*'  were  either  themselves  im- 
migrants or  are  the  sons  of  those  who  sought  America  as 
political  or  economic  refugees.  We  have  been  told  of  a 
Boston  man,  proud  of  his  ancestry,  who  was  entertaining 


12  CHRISTIAN  AMERICANIZATION 

a  young  Indian,  a  university  graduate,  a  cultured  Christian 
gentleman.  The  Boston  man  was  unable  to  make  the  im- 
pression he  desired  and  finally  said  rather  impatiently,  "You 
do  not  seem  to  appreciate  the  significance  of  the  fact  that 
my  ancestors  came  over  here  in  the  Mayflower.''  The 
young  man  replied,  vrith  a  twinkle  in  his  eye,  we  imagine, 
"I  must  remind  you  that  my  ancestors  were  on  the  recep- 
tion committee." 

It  is  of  the  utmost  importance  that  we  understand  at  the 
outset  of  our  study  that  Americanization  is  not  concerned 
with  people  of  foreign  antecedents  alone.  It  holds  a  signifi- 
cant challenge  for  people  of  American  ancestry.  In  fact, 
many  of  the  best  informed  students  of  these  matters  are 
convinced  that  the  crux  of  the  whole  matter  is  with  the 
older  Americans  rather  than  with  those  who  have  sought 
opportunity  and  a  new  life  here  in  America.  Frances  Kel- 
lor  has  stated  this  view  of  Americanization  most  clearly: 
"It  seems  to  me  that  our  real  enemy  is  not  an  aggressive 
f oreignism,  but  a  passive,  complacent  Americanism . . .  What 
we  really  need  to  fear  is  not  that  we  shall  be  invaded  by 
civilizations  and  ideals  we  cannot  assimilate  but  that  we 
shall  fail  to  develop  and  perpetuate  and  extend  to  all  Amer- 
icans the  civilization  and  the  ideals  we  firmly  believe  to  be 
American."^ 

Americanization,  a  Process.  It  is  difficult  for  the 
average  man  to  appreciate  the  fact  that  such  a  radical  trans- 
formation as  that  involved  in  our  conception  of  American- 
ization is  a  gradual  and  progressive  achievement.  There  are 
men  who  understood  and  heartily  appreciated  the  ideals  and 
practical  administration  of  affairs  in  America  before  ever 

1  Kellor,  Straight  dmerica,  p.  85. 


THE  PRESENT  ISSUE  13 

they  arrived,  but  these  are  proportionately  very  few.  Others, 
whose  knowledge  of  the  world  outside  their  native  village 
was  most  meager,  have  idealized  America  and  have  been 
shocked  and  disappointed  by  the  realities  that  any  well-in- 
formed person  would  have  expected  to  find.  But  there  are 
many,  and  of  these  we  must  take  serious  note,  who  have 
been  grievously  and  justly  shocked  by  what  America  has 
proved  to  be  and  by  conditions  which  true  Americans  would 
resent  and  repudiate  if  they  only  knew  them.  The  dis- 
illusionment has  been  tragic.  It  is  difficult  for  most  Amer- 
icans to  understand  this  embittered  attitude.  Many  of  us 
heartily  resent  it  and  are  in  turn  embittered  toward  the 
foreigner.  Americanization,  to  many  of  the  immigrant 
people,  means  the  most  superficial  imitation  of  what  they 
falsely  deem  to  be  genuine  Americanism.  We  need  at  the 
beginning  of  our  study  to  put  out  of  our  minds  the  possibi- 
lity of  any  quick  and  magic  transformation  as  meeting  the 
requirements  of  Americanization. 

What  most  of  us  lack  is  imagination.  At  the  beginning 
of  his  administration  as  commissioner  of  immigration  at 
Ellis  Island,  Frederick  C.  Howe  said  that  his  ideal  was  to  in- 
troduce imagination  into  the  management  of  affairs  at 
that  main  port  of  entry.  It  is  not  only  there  that  It  is 
needed,  but  everywhere,  when  we  are  dealing  with  these 
matters.  Americanization  is  not  a  mechanical  process.  One 
does  not  automatically  become  an  American  by  becoming 
naturalized,  learning  the  language,  wearing  American- 
made  clothes,  or  imitating  American  fashions  and  customs. 
We  must  fix  once  for  all  in  our  minds  the  fact  that  Amer- 
icanization is  a  spiritual  process,  and  that  spiritual  processes 


14  CHRISTIAN  AMERICANIZATION 

are  only  spiritually  discerned  and  are  often  slow,  Indirect, 
and  unconclous.  When  we  Insist  upon  that  standard,  it  is 
to  be  feared  that  some  people  who  proudly  boast  of  a  long 
American  ancestry  have  never  truly  apprehended  or  em* 
bodied  the  American  spirit. 

National  Unity.  National  unity  Is  a  relative  matter 
and  a  progressive  achievement.  It  will  never  be  true,  so 
long  as  human  nature  is  what  it  is,  that  we  shall  all  think 
exactly  alike  about  matters  social,  religious,  political,  or 
about  many  others  which  are  included  in  the  spiritual  life  of 
the  nation. 

Probably  the  greatest  relative  unity  that  we  have  ever 
achieved  has  been  In  regard  to  America's  participation  in  the 
war.  Still,  there  have  been  very  marked  differences  of 
opinion.  There  have  been  varying  degrees  of  militancy  and 
pacifism  and  some  disloyalty.  Yet  for  all  practical  purposes 
we  have  been  a  united  nation.  We  were  not  united  when 
the  war  began.  One  of  the  strong  arguments  used  by  the 
supporters  of  President  Wilson  In  his  campaign  for  a  second 
term  was  that  he  had  kept  us  out  of  the  war.  Yet  when 
the  hour  of  our  entrance  into  the  war  struck,  it  found  us 
fairly  united.  With  the  second  year  and  the  presence  of  our 
army  in  France,  with  the  clearer  appreciation  of  the 
Issues  which  were  at  the  heart  of  the  struggle,  we  became 
more  and  more  fully  united.  We  shall  not  be  agreed  about 
the  peace  terms  or  policies  of  reconstruction.  But  one  thing 
is  attested  by  our  national  experience;  that  time  and  educa- 
tion work  miracles  of  unity  in  a  democracy,  with  free  speech 
and  a  free  press  guaranteed. 

When  facing  a  matter  like  Americanization,  we  need  the 


THE  PRESENT  ISSUE  15 

perspective  of  our  history  from  earliest  colonial  days.  We 
are  not  inclined  to  allow  sufficient  time  for  the  development 
and  maturity  of  great  movements.  The  colonies  passed 
through  many  trying  and  stormy  experiences  before  July 
4,  1776,  when  they  were  able  to  promulgate  the  Declara- 
tion cf  Independence.  English,  Dutch,  French,  Spanish, 
Swedish,  German,  Portuguese,  all  had  to  learn  to  act  to- 
gether. Protestants  and  Catholics,  Jews  and  Quakers  had 
to  find  a  common  basis  of  cooperation.  New  England,  New 
York,  Virginia,  and  the  Carolinas  had  to  recognize  a  com- 
mon destiny.  It  was  only  through  a  long  series  of  conflicts 
that  a  degree  of  unity  at  last  em.erged.  When  the  initial 
victory  v^^as  won,  we  know  v/hat  contentious  debates  en- 
sued until  one  after  another  the  states  ratified  the  constitu- 
tion. What  sectional  jealousies,  suspicions,  and  distrust 
were  engendered  we  cannot  forget.  Then  came  the  most 
tragic  stage  in  our  progress  toward  national  unity,  culminat- 
ing in  a  resort  to  arms,  in  order  to  decide  the  issue  between 
state  and  federal  sovereignty.  A  generation  elapsed  before 
that  decision  received  the  degree  of  spiritual  ratification 
which  has  twice  enabled  us  to  stand  firmly  united  in  a  great 
conflict.  If  we  can  keep  this  historical  lesson  in  mind,  it 
will  enable  us  to  rely  v/ith  assurance  upon  democratic  pro- 
cesses and  to  strive  patiently  for  the  fruition  of  our  hopes. 
We  shall  try  to  make  clear  that  this  progress  toward 
national  unity  calls  for  patient  and  wise  education  and  de- 
mands its  full  price  of  unselfish  devotion  to  our  country  and 
full  faith  in  our  fellow  men  and  in  the  democracy  we  profess. 
It  is  absolutely  essential  that  we  believe  in  the  efficiency  of 
spiritual  processes  and   that  we  be  willing  to  trust  them. 


16  CHRISTIAN  AMERICANIZATION 

Resort  to  fiat  or  force  will  only  retard  the  process.  These 
are  the  resources  of  smaller  minds  and  weaker  faith. 

Some  Fundamental  Principles  to  be  Kept  in  Mind. 
America  is  a  sacred  trust  which  has  been  bequeathed  to  U9 
by  those  who  have  gone  before  and  which  we  in  turn  are 
to  pass  on  to  those  who  come  after  us.  A  nation  is  more 
than  land  area.  It  is  a  spiritual  entity.  It  exists  in  the 
hearts  of  the  people.  We  have  seen  heroic  Belgians  and 
Serbians  dispossessed  of  their  national  territory  but  un- 
beaten in  their  spirits,  and  wherever  they  may  have  been 
driven,  they  have  carried  their  nation  with  them.  The 
Czecho-Slovaks  have  had  no  independence  for  three  hundred 
years,  but  they  never  allowed  the  firesof  the  national  spirit  to  be  ex- 
tinguished and  at  last  have  come  into  their  Promised  Land. 

A  national  ideal  is  a  progressive  and  expanding  ideal. 
Our  institutions  and  conceptions  have  undergone,  with  the 
passing  generations,  that  expansion  and  progress  which  are 
characteristic  of  a  spiritual  ideal.  It  is  this  which  makes 
democracy  what  it  is  and  insures  growth.  But  the  chief 
point  to  be  remembered  is  that  this  trust  we  enjoy  to-day 
represents  sacrifice  and  endurance,  heroic  and  unselfish.  In 
the  book  of  Judges  we  read  that  after  the  death  of  Joshua 
"all  that  generation  were  gathered  unto  their  fathers;  and 
there  arose  another  generation  after  them,  that  knew  not 
Jehovah,  nor  yet  the  works  which  he  had  wrought  for 
Israel."  Americanization  is  the  endeavor  to  conserve  our 
national  trust  and  administer  it  for  those  who  come  after 
us  in  the  spirit  of  the  founders  and  in  the  light  of  our  best 
traditions.  Our  children  must  live  in  a  nation  which  we 
are  now  making  for  them. 


THE  PRESENT  ISSUE  17 

Our  Right  to  Our  Ideals.  We  in  America  have  the 
right,  which  we  readily  accord  to  every  other  nation,  to 
enjoy  the  type  of  government  and  the  social  institutions 
which  suit  our  taste.  They  may  not  be  the  best  in  the  world, 
but  if  we  like  them,  it  is  our  privilege  to  enjoy  them.  The 
European  Sabbath,  the  free  use  of  liquor,  the  treatment  ac- 
corded to  women  by  the  Slav  and  Oriental,  and  many  other 
customs  which  could  be  mentioned  may  be,  in  the  judg- 
ment of  some  who  desire  to  live  in  America,  vastly  preferable 
to  our  conception  of  these  matters. 

This  opens  up  many  questions  of  great  importance  as  to 
how  much  modification  in  our  standards  we  should  make  to 
suit  the  tastes  of  newcomers.  We  lay  down  this  fact  as  a 
fundamental  principle:  America  has  a  right  to  her  own 
civilization  and  her  own  culture  and  an  equal  right  to  re- 
ject the  culture  which  any  may  endeavor  to  thrust  upon  her. 
There  is  much  that  we  can  learn  from  other  nations.  We 
have  already  derived  much  from  them,  and  we  cannot  close 
our  minds  to  new  light;  but  it  is  essential  that  we  shall  be 
permitted  to  determine  what  is  consistent  with  our  ideals. 

A  Unique  Situation.  America  has  not  been  the  only 
country  with  a  ^'foreign  problem."  Until  the  break-up  of 
Austria  and  Russia,  continual  unrest  characterized  the  na- 
tional life  of  those  countries.  Canada  has  a  "foreign  prob- 
lem": the  French  population,  enjoying  rights  guaranteed  by 
treaty,  is  an  unassimilated  mass  in  the  body  politic  of 
Canada;  French  is  the  commercial,  social,  and  ecclesiastical 
language  of  several  hundreds  of  thousands  of  the  citizens  of 
Quebec  and  Eastern  Ontario. 

But  there  is  a  fundamental  distinction  and  contrast  be- 


18  CHRISTIAN  AMERICANIZATION 

tweeii  the  foreigner  in  America  and  the  Bohemian,  Slovak, 
Rumanian,  and  Italian  in  Austria-Hungary.  The  latter  have 
been  living  in  their  ancestral  homes  under  the  dominion  of 
conquerors.  The  immigrant  in  AmxCrica  is  a  voluntary- 
guest  of  America,  to  be  accorded  the  rights  guaranteed  by 
treaty  with  the  country  of  his  origin  until  he  becomes  a 
citizen.  When  he  becomes  a  citizen,  as  he  may  of  his  ovv^n 
free  choice,  he  voluntarily  renounces  allegiance  to  the  former 
sovereignty  under  which  he  lived  and  takes  a  voluntary 
oath  to  "uphold  the  constitution  and  defend  America  against 
all  enemies,  foreign  and  domestic,"  and  to  maintain  "true 
faith  and  allegiance"  to  the  country  of  his  adoption.  This 
status  of  the  new  American,  by  virtue  of  its  voluntary  nature, 
cannot  be  ignored  and  must  not  be  lost  sight  of. 

The  Foundation  of  Democracy.  Democracy  is  not 
simply  a  form  of  government.  It  is  the  spirit  of  society 
and  extends  fo  all  the  relationships  of  national  life.  "The 
true  foundations  of  democracy,"  Professor  John  R.  Com- 
mons well  says,  "are  in  the  character  of  the  people."  In  an 
address  in  New  York  City  a  few  years  ago  Governor  Whit- 
man declared:  "It  is  not  the  government  that  makes  the 
people  free.  It  is  the  people  who  make  the  government  free. 
It  is  not  the  government  that  makes  the  people  good,  but  the 
people  who  make  the  government  good."^ 

We  have  been  warned  in  a  startling  way  by  Russia's  ex- 
perience that,  in  order  to  make  democracy  safe  for  the  world, 
there  must  be  preparation  for  democratic  responsibilities. 
Education  and  training  are  necessaiy.  The  thirteen  colonies 
did  not  decide  upon  a  republican  form  of  government  in  an 
academic   way.      Professor    Roland    G.    Usher    points    out 

1  Commons,  Races  and  Immigrants  in  America,  p.   6. 


THE  PRESENT  ISSUE  19 

that  it  was  only  after  long  practise  in  managing  the  local 
colonial  affairs  that  it  became  evident  that  democracy 
was  expedient.  No  one  came  to  America  to  establish  a 
democracy.^  In  admitting  newcomers  to  the  privileges  and 
duties  of  citizenship — in  fact,  in  admitting  any  one  to  these 
responsibilities  and  rights — the  fundamental  importance  of 
training,  intelligence,  restraint,  integrity,  experience,  all  that 
goes  to  make  up  character  must  be  taken  into  consideration. 

United,  We  Stand,  We  have  witnessed  the  collapse  of 
Austria  and  the  break-up  of  Russia.  In  those  countries  there 
was  no  spiritual  unity.  What  semblance  of  unity  existed 
was  due  to  the  iron  control  of  autocracy.  The  inevitable 
has  happened,  although  it  was  long  over-due.  In  a  demo- 
cracy the  truth  of  Jesus'  words  concerning  'a.  house  divided 
against  itself  is  perfectly  self-evident.  As  Professor  Com- 
mons says,  "To  be  great,  a  nation  need  not  be  of  one  blood ; 
it  must  be  of  one  mind ...  If  we  think  together,  we  can  act 
together.''^  Democracy  involves  acting  together,  and  the 
essential  prerequisite  for  united  action  is  united  thought. 
To  quote  President  Wilson's  Fourth  Liberty  Loan  speech, 
we  must  be  able  to  * 'speak  the  same  language,  literally  and 
spiritually." 

Is  it  possible,  with  the  various  racial  stocks,  the  many 
different  heritages,  the  multiplicity  of  handicaps  that  are 
Involved,  is  it  possible  for  America  to  achieve  national  unity? 
Is  it  possible  for  us  to  overcome  class  consciousness  and  the 
survivals  of  race  consciousness,  to  overthrow  the  inevitable 
barriers  and  bridge  the  separating  chasms  which  exist,  and 
to  emerge  one  people,  Indivisible,  with  liberty  and  justice  en- 
joyed by  all?    The  answer  is  involved  in  the  answer  to  an- 

1  Usher,   The  Rise  of  the  American  People,  Chap.  V. 

2  Commons,  Races  and  Immigrants  in  America,  p.  20. 


20  CHRISTIAN  AMERICANIZATION 

other  question.  Is  it  possible  for  America  to  realize  the 
promise  of  the  past,  to  be  true  to  her  trust  and  attain  to  the 
goal  of  her  ideals,  while  at  the  same  time  she  is  called  upon 
to  educate  and  assimilate  millions  of  men  and  women  of 
foreign  birth  and  their  children.  There  are  some  of  us  who 
believe  that  this  task  may  be  her  salvation,  if  she  can  meet  it 
in  the  right  spirit.  If  America  has  moral  and  social  vitality, 
spiritual  vision,  and  unselfish  devotion  to  humanity,  she  will 
rise  to  the  opportunity  which  is  afforded  her  and  so  realize 
the  manifest  destiny  which  is  her  share  in  God's  world  plan. 


CHAPTER  II 
AMERICA'S  GENIUS  FOR  ASSIMILATION 

COLUMBUS  is  popularly  credited  with  having  dis- 
covered America.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  everybody 
must  make  that  discovery  for  himself.  It  is  per- 
fectly possible  for  people  to  live  out  their  little  lives  and 
never  really  discover  America.  The  Indians  lived  here  for 
generations  before  the  white  man  came,  but  they  never  dis- 
covered America's  resources.  One  may  travel  the  length  and 
breadth  of  the  country  and  never  understand  the  genius  and 
spirit  of  America.  As  we  said  in  the  preceding  chapter,  a 
nation  exists  in  the  consciousness  of  the  people.  Some  of 
the  keenest  appreciations  of  America  have  been  uttered  by 
people  who  were  not  born  here.  A  classic  authority  on  our 
political  institutions  was  written  by  an  Englishman.^ 

As  a  nation,  we  have  experienced  a  spiritual  awakening, 
a  revival  of  "Americanism."  A  new  self-consciousness  has 
come  to  us  as  a  by-product  of  the  war.  In  the  past  we 
have  habitually  taken  things  for  granted.  We  have  been 
conscious  of  wealth  and  power.  We  have  been  fed  up  on 
more  or  less  flamboyant  statements  of  our  greatness.  While 
in  a  vague  way  we  have  been  conscious  of  our  ideals,  but 
few  of  us  would  be  able  to  defend  our  faith  against  a  critic 
of  America.  We  would  die  rather  than  intentionally  sur- 
1  James  Bryce,  The  American  Commonwealth. 

21 


22  CHRISTIAN  AMERICANIZATION 

render  our  ideals;  the  danger  is,  we  may  betray  our  country 
unwittingly  or  sell  our  birthright  for  a  mess  of  pottage, 
without  realizing  that  we  have  made  the  bad  bargain. 

There  is  much  carping  criticism  of  America  by  radical 
elements  which  is  irritating  to  us  and  arouses  bitter  resent- 
ment. In  the  long  run,  however,  this  criticism  will  do  us 
good.  We  cannot  content  ourselves  with  vague  generalities; 
we  must  each  set  forth  on  a  voyage  of  discovery  and  find 
America  for  ourselves.  Love  is  not  blind.  If  we  love  our 
country,  we  will  not  shut  our  eyes  to  her  failures  but  will 
be  the  more  sensitive  to  imperfections  just  because  we  love 
her.  In  this  chapter  we  shall  endeavor  to  point  out  some  of 
the  qualities  which  constitute  America's  genius  for  dealing 
with  new  elements  which  have  been  received  into  her 
national  life.  It  is  earnestly  hoped  that  this  brief  study 
will  provoke  further  and  more  serious  consideration  of  the 
larger  subject  of  America's  genius  and  spirit,  and  the  part 
she  has  to  play  in  the  reconstruction  of  the  world  on  demo- 
cratic principles. 

An  Unique  Undertaking.  The  most  daring  adven- 
ture which  any  nation  has  ever  undertaken  is  the  admission 
into  its  national  life  and  to  a  participation  in  the  responsi- 
bilities and  rights  of  citizenship,  of  millions  of  people,  speak- 
ing foreign  languages,  having  been  trained  in  different  social 
customs,  and  having  lived  under  different  political  institu- 
tions. 

Other  nations  have'  had  to  deal  with  racial  elements  for- 
eign to  the  dominant  race.  Other  nations  have  large  num- 
bers of  foreign  residents  and  refugees  who  have  played  a 
rather  conspicuous  part  in  their  literary  or  artistic  life.  But 


AMERICA'S   GENIUS   FOR  ASSIMILATION  23 

no  other  nation  in  modern  history  has  had  an  experience 
comparable  to  that  of  the  United  States.  The  fact  that  she 
has  so  largely  escaped  the  bitterness  engendered  in  other 
nations,  that  she  has  not  been  obliged  to  resort  to  com- 
promises, adjustments,  or  accommodations,  as  others  have 
been  obliged  to  do,  in  order  to  preserve  even  a  semblance  of 
peace,  calls  for  explanation. 

Not  Subjugation.  In  the  preceding  chapter  v^^e  have 
pointed  out  the  unique  status  of  the  immigrant  in  America. 
He  is  not  a  subject  living  under  conditions  imposed  through 
conquest  by  an  enemy  who  has  beaten  him  in  battle.  That 
has  been  for  centuries  the  status  of  millions  of  people  in 
Europe,  and  many  of  them  have  come  to  America  to  escape 
intolerable  conditions  consequent  to  subjugation.  They  have 
suffered  so  much  that  we  must  take  great  pains  and  be  very 
patient  in  making  clear  their  present  status  here  and  the 
radical  difference  between  the  moral  aims  of  Americaniza- 
tion and  their  past  unhappy  experience. 

The  status  of  the  Slovaks  of  Hungary  will  serve  as  an 
illustration  of  what  assimilation  by  the  process  of  subjuga- 
tion means.  The  Magyars  came  from  western  Asia,  a 
strong,  brave,  and  capable  people,  and  after  a  fierce  struggle 
settled  in  the  fertile  plains  of  Hungary.  They  subdued  the 
Slovaks  who  for  long  years  had  lived  in  the  north  under 
the  shadow  of  the  Carpathians.  The  Tatra  region  is  the 
beloved  land  of  the  Slovaks,  whose  temperament  is  radically 
different  from  that  of  the  proud  and  stern  Magyar.  The 
experience  of  the  repressive  measures  by  which  the  minority 
element,  the  Magyars,  have  imposed  their  language  and  their 
will  upon  these  simpler  people  would  turn  an  American  into 


24  CHRISTIAN  AMERICANIZATION 

a  savage  and  implacable  foe.  When  we  are  discussing  Amer- 
icanization, in  dealing  with  representatives  from  Hungary, 
we  have  to  overcome  a  fear  that  Americanization  is  the 
equivalent  in  the  United  States  of  Magyarization  in 
Hungary.  That  process  in  Germany,  as  it  has  concerned 
the  Poles,  French,  and  Danes,  has  been  the  same  story  with 
local  variations.  We  shall  have  occasion  to  refer  to  some 
of  these  repressive  measures  more  specifically.  Let  us  make 
it  clear  and  unmistakable  that  assimilation,  which  is  our 
ideal  in  Americanization,  is  not  subjugation. 

Not  Incorporation.  There  are  two  interesting  illustra- 
tions of  incorporation  of  a  foreign  body  into  a  national 
body  politic.  Swedes  differing  in  blood  and  language  from 
the  Finns,  have  lived  for  many  years  in  the  western  part  of 
Finland.  This  is  their  ancestral  home,  but  it  has  long  been 
cut  off  from  Sweden  by  conquest.  They  have  enjoyed 
great  freedom  and  have  retained  their  own  language  and 
customs  practically  undisturbed.  They  have  only  in  oc- 
casional instances  attempted  to  learn  the  Finnish  language. 

The  French  in  Canada  we  have  alluded  to.  Protected  by 
treaties  which  the  Canadian  Government  has  always  respect- 
ed, there  live  hundreds  of  thousands  of  French  people,  most- 
ly Romanists,  who  have  been  incorporated  into  the  body 
of  the  Dominion.  Though  they  are  represented  in  Parlia- 
ment and  enjoy  all  the  rights  of  other  citizens  of  Canada, 
they  have  persistently  resisted  assimilation.  The  distur- 
bances connected  with  conscription  during  the  war  disclosed 
that,  although  there  were  glorious  exceptions,  the  French 
Canadians  as  a  people,  are  an  incorporated  but  still  unas- 
similated  body. 


AMERICA'S   GENIUS   FOR  ASSIMILATION  25 

Better  Than  Adjustment.  Adjustment  is  a  term 
which  has  been  proposed  as  a  substitute  or  compromise  to 
soften  the  alleged  arbitrariness  of  the  idea  of  assimilation. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  illustrations  of  political  ad- 
justment is  Switzerland.  That  sturdy  nation  is  composed 
of  three  racial  units:  French,  German,  and  Italian.  The 
distribution,  numerically  and  geographically,  of  these  races  is 
such  as  to  assure  respect  for  each  other's  rights  and  tradi- 
tions. Switzerland  is  a  federation  of  French-speaking,  Ger- 
man-speakmg,  and  Italian-speaking  cantons,  based,  very 
largely,  upon  the  principles  of  our  own  governmental  sys- 
tem. A  phase  of  this  which  has  much  historical  importance 
is  the  religious  adjustment  involved.  Catholic  and  Pro- 
testant cantons  have  learned  to  cooperate.  While  the  Cath- 
olics and  the  Protestants  are  not  all  in  separate  cantons,  in 
earlier  days  the  predominance  of  each  in  separate  cantons 
created  problems  of  adjustment  which  have  since  been  set- 
tled on  a  satisfactory  working  basis. 

But  however  much  we  admire  the  achievement  of  Switzer- 
land we  would  not  wish  to  entertain  that  conception  of  ad- 
justment as  America's  ideal.  Adjustment  is  all  that  may 
fairly  be  expected  of  an  alien  resident.  An  agent  of  a  foreign 
commercial  house  would  adjust  himself  to  the  situation  which 
he  found  in  the  country  of  his  residence.  He  would  quickly 
adjust  himself  to  business  methods,  social  habits,  and  if 
possible,  to  the  language.  This  would  simply  be  good  busi- 
ness. He  would  be  free  to  join  a  club  of  his  fellow  country- 
men and  enjoy  all  the  advantages  of  association  of  his  home 
folk.  He  would  be  free  to  attend  public  worship  conducted 
in  his   mother   tongue,   if   he   could   find   a   church   of   his 


26  CHRISTIAN  AMERICANIZATION 

choice.  These  privileges  are  conceded  in  most  parts  of  the 
world. 

But  citizenship  is  a  more  vital  matter,  especially  in  Amer- 
ica. It  calls  for  a  different  attitude  of  mind.  It  is  not 
simply  a  matter  of  privileges  and  protection  conferred  and 
enjoyed.  It  involves  the  whole  life  of  the  nation  as  a 
partner  and  partaker.  The  ideal  which  America  has  cherish- 
ed from  the  beginning  is  an  assimilation  of  new  elements, 
which  would  result  eventually  in  complete  spiritual  identity 
both  with  America  at  large  and  Vv^ith  the  local  community. 
Keeping  in  mind  the  long  view  of  the  matter,  every  student 
of  American  history  must  be  impressed  with  the  fact  that, 
notwithstanding  some  exceptions,  this  ideal  has  been  largely 
realized.  No  one  desires  a  dead  level  of  monotonous  re- 
petition, whereby  every  American  shall  be  an  exact  replica 
of  every  other  American.  What  we  should  cherish  resolute- 
ly and  strive  for  unwaveringly  is  that  complete,  sj^mpathetic 
identification  on  the  part  of  all  with  the  life  and  spirit  of 
America  socially  and  politically,  so  that  we  shall  be  spiritual- 
ly one  nation,  one  people. 

We  cannot  attain  this  ideal  so  long  as  there  exist  "for- 
eign" settlements:  colonies  and  areas  which  are  distinguish- 
ed by  a  single  predominant  racial  stock;  an  imported  civil- 
ization, transplanted,  and  not  indigenous  to  America;  a 
survival  of  old  world  traditions  and  habits  and  points  of 
view;  a  "bloc"  that  politicians  shall  be  able  to  reckon  as 
the  "Irish  vote"  or  the  "German  vote"  or  the  "Swedish 
vote"  or  the  "Jewish  vote."  This  survival  of  racial  self- 
consciousness  which  resists  all  American  influences  is  but 
the  reproduction  on  American  soil  of  those  other  concep- 


AMERICA'S    GENIUS    FOR   ASSIMILATION  27 

tlons  of  racial  relationships  which  historically  have  meant 
discord  and  prevented  the  highest  and  most  perfect  national 
unity  in  other  lands. 

A  New  Race.  We  are  familiar  with  several  racial 
blends.  Very  few  races  are  of  pure  or  unmixed  stock.  Per- 
haps the  first  illustration  which  occurs  to  us  of  this  blending 
of  different  racial  families  into  a  new  race  is  that  of  the 
Anglo-Saxons — a  blending  which  is  of  more  than  ordinary 
interest  to  us. 

England  and  the  English,  as  v/e  think  of  them,  were  a 
transplantation.  England  first  existed  in  what  is  now 
Schleswig  in  the  center  of  the  Danish  peninsula.  The 
Anglo-Saxons  were  a  race  constituted  out  of  the  Jutes  in 
the  north,  the  English  in  the  center,  and  the  Saxons  in  the 
south.  All  these  races  were  of  Teutonic  stock,  speaking  the 
Anglo-Saxon  language  and  living  under  the  same  social  and 
political  institutions.  There  were  no  kings  in  their  conti- 
nental home,  and  justice  and  public  affairs  were  settled 
somewhat  after  the  order  of  the  New  England  town  meet- 
ing, but  usually  In  the  open  air  under  the  "moot  tree."  The 
British  Isles  had  been  peopled  by  Britons,  PIcts,  and  Scots. 
After  the  withdrawal  of  the  Romans  to  defend  Italy  against 
the  attack  of  the  Northern  hordes,  the  PIcts,  Scots,  and 
Anglo-Saxons  had  harried  the  sea  and  menaced  the  Britons. 
The  Britons  by  generous  bribes  succeeded  In  breaking  up 
the  league  which  bound  their  enemies  and  united  the  Anglo- 
Saxons  to  themselves  as  allies.  Ebbfield,  on  the  Isle  of 
Thanet  off  the  coast  of  Kent,  was  their  ''Plymouth  Rock" 
of  449  A.  D.  There  the  Anglo-Saxons  landed,  to  become, 
after  two  and  a  half  centuries  of  bitter  and  relentless  con- 


28  CHRISTIAN  AMERICANIZATION 

flict,  the  possessors  of  the  land.  Their  customs  and  Institu- 
tions supplanted  those  of  the  Romans  and  Britons,  and  the 
Britons,  as  a  race,  disappeared. 

An  interesting  contrast  occurs  to  us,  which  cannot  be  with- 
out significance.  This  adventure  upon  a  career  of  conquest 
resulted  in  the  creation  of  kings,  a  class  of  ''nobility,"  and  a 
class  of  slaves  among  a  once  democratic  people.  Soon  after 
the  beginning  of  the  conquest  there  appeared  an  Anglo-Saxon 
king  in  Kent,  another  in  Wessex,  and  also  one  in  Sussex. 
After  a  lapse  of  more  than  a  thousand  years,  immigrants 
from  that  island,  descendants  of  these  ancient  conquerors, 
still  further  blended  by  the  infusion  of  Norman  blood, 
established  upon  this  continent  a  nation  without  a  king  and 
■without  a  class  of  titled  nobility.  Here  they  were  to  restore 
that  democratic  principle  which  their  forefathers  had  for- 
saken by  becoming  a  military  people.  The  Anglo-Saxons 
established  themselves  In  Britain  by  conquest.  The  race 
which  we  know  as  American  has  established  Itself  here 
through  colonization,  industry,  thrift,  and  peaceful  infiltra- 
tion. 

That  Americans  are  a  new  race  is  accepted  practically  by 
all  students  of  American  social  and  political  life  and  institu- 
tions. Speaking  of  the  'nation  as  a  whole,  Americans  are 
not,  therefore,  Anglo-Saxons,  although  we  constantly  refer 
to  ourselves  In  that  way  in  popular  speech,  and  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  Influence  has  been  the  most  determinative  in  our  na- 
tional history.  A  humorous  Instance  of  this  popular  use  of 
the  term  comes  to  us  out  of  the  war.  A  Negro  soldier  in 
the  United  States  army  was  execrating  the  cruelty  of  the 
enemy  and  brought  his  passionate  outburst  to  a  close  by  ex- 


Photo  by  A.  T.  Beals 


^  Brown  Brothers 


In  New  York  —  the  City  of  Many  Nations 

1.  The  ends  of  the  earth  come  together  in  the  ice-depot  line. 

2.  The  daily  noon-hour  throng  of  foreign-speaking  garment 

workers  on  lower  Fifth  Avenue. 


AMERICA'S   GENIUS   FOR  ASSIMILATION  29 

claiming,  "Just  wait  until  us  Angry  Saxyums  get  over  there  ; 
we'll  fix  'em!"  As  a  government  we  are  the  United  States 
of  America.  As  a  nation  we  are  the  American  people.  One 
thing  is  clear,  and  that  Is  the  chief  point  under  consideration : 
Americans  are  a  new  creation.  It  is  essential  that  we  keep 
this  fact  clearly  In  mind  when  we  are  considering  the  type  or 
form  to  which  newcomers  are  assimilated.  We  are  not 
asking  that  Latins  and  Slavs  who  come  to  America  shall 
become  Anglo-Saxons,  but  Americans.  As  America  is  not 
a  Western  England,  so  Americans  are  not  Western  English- 
men, but  a  new  race. 

Creating  Type.  We  have  had  a  number  of  fascinating 
biographies  which  have  set  forth  vividly  the  experience  by 
which  individuals  have  become  Americans.  We  have  need 
of  a  popular  and  readable  national  biography  which  will  tell 
the  more  fascinating  story  of  the  making  of  the  American, 
the  creation  of  the  new  race. 

The  new  race  is  an  amalgam  of  several  distinct  racial 
stocks  blended  together  under  the  dominating  influence  of 
the  English  descendants  of  those  early  Anglo-Saxons.  There 
were  at  least  fourteen — some  say  eighteen — different  lan- 
guages spoken  on  Manhattan  Island  as  early  as  1664.  By 
the  time  the  Declaration  of  Independence  was  promulgated 
there  were  established  along  the  Atlantic  seaboard  and  east 
of  the  Appalachian  settlements  of  English,  Scotch,  Irish, 
Dutch,  French,  Swedes,  Moravians,  Germans,  Spanish,  and 
Portuguese.  The  significant  fact  for  us  to  note  Is  that  the 
population  of  the  thirteen  colonies,  numbering  less  than 
4,000,000,  was  overwhelmingly  "Teutonic  in  blood  and 
Protestant  In  religion."^ 

1  Commons,  Races  and  Immigrant  in  America. 


30  CHRISTIAN  AMERICANIZATION 

Dr.  Laldlaw,  secretary  of  the  Federation  of  Churches  of 
New  York  City  and  celebrated  statistician,  is  authority  for 
this  illuminating  racial  analysis  of  that  early  population: 
"We  are... a  nation  derived  from  the  3,172,444  whites 
and  757,181  Negroes  enumerated  in  the  census  of  1790. 
The  white  population  of  the  nation  in  1790  was  made  up 
of  2,906,414,  or  91.6%,  from  the  nations  comprising  the 
Entente  Allies  of  to-day  [191 8.]  Of  this  percentage  .6% 
were  French,  and  the  remaining  91%  English,  Scotch, 
and  Irish.  The  present  Germany  contributed  only  176,407 
or  5.6%,  and  of  the  present  neutrals  the  Dutch  contributed 
78,959  or  2.5%,  and  all  other  whites  .3%." 

Whether  it  was  because  the  English  were  superior  in  num- 
bers or  in  native  force  is  not  known,  but  it  is  a  fact  that  they 
dominated  that  early  racial  blend  and  in  time  the  Saxons 
and  Jutes  disappeared  and  the  English  became  a  distinct  tj^pe 
with  a  distinct  language.  It  was  not  by  mere  accident  that 
the  English  succeeded  in  colonizing  the  new  world  where 
others  failed,  and  at  last  became  the  dominant  element  in  the 
colonies.  The  Spanish  left  their  imprint  on  Central  and 
South  America,  but  they  made  only  slight  impression  on  the 
colonies  of  North  America.  It  would  lead  us  too  far  afield 
from  our  present  study  to  follow  the  interesting  inquiry  as 
to  the  reasons  for  this  difference,  but  it  is  an  important  field 
of  study  for  Americans  who  are  interested  in  the  subject. 
By  the  time  of  the  Revolution,  the  English  recognized 
that  in  the  colonies  there  had  arisen  a  distinct  type  that  was 
different  from  the  English  of  the  British  Isles.  The  selec- 
tion of  the  best  among  early  settlers,  the  underlying  purpose 
in  settlement,  the  climate  and  geography  of  the  country,  the 


AMERICA'S   GENIUS   FOR  ASSIMILATION  31 

experiences  and  exigencies  of  pioneer  life  have  all  been 
credited  with  determining  the  type.  This,  too,  is  a  fascinat- 
ing stud}^  for  those  who  are  interested  in  tracing  the  in- 
fluences which  are  still  operating  in  American  life. 

True  to  Type.  That  we  are  a  hybrid  people  has  often 
been  said  of  us  by  others  in  a  disparaging  tone,  and  some- 
times our  own  people  have  spoken  regretfully  in  the  same 
strain.  This  is  a  matter  of  opinion  and  cannot  be  settled 
arbitrarily.  But  we  need  to  recognize  the  fact  that  the  type 
w^hich  was  created,  and  was  still  embryonic  in  1776,  has 
been  maintained  for  nearly  one  hundred  and  fifty  years. 

The  nation  has  grown  from  4,000,000  to  more  than 
100,000,000.  The  national  area  has  increased  from  the  nar- 
row strip  along  the  Atlantic  Coast  across  vast  states  to  the 
Pacific  and  from  the  Gulf  to  the  Great  Lakes.  We  re- 
cognize sectional  characteristics,  and  we  believe  that  these 
are  advantageous  and  keep  us  more  sanely  balanced.  The 
contributions  that  the  Dutch,  French,  Scotch,  Irish,  Scandi- 
navians, and  Germans  have  made  are  gratefully  acknow- 
ledged, and  we  recognize  that  still  other  stocks  have' left  their 
impress  on  American  life. 

Dr.  Laidlaw  has  carried  his  analysis  over  to  our  day,  and 
he  has  an  important  contribution  to  make  at  this  point: 
''The  United  States  had,  in  1880,  from  the  10,189,429 
immigrants  of  the  years  1 820-1 850,  7,794,000  native-born 
whites  of  native  parents,  who  included  at  least  2,927,000 
of  foreign  grand-parentage.  Our  United  States  of  July  i, 
191 7,  was  made  up  of  17.7%  of  post-Revolutionary  grand- 
parentage,  from  allied  countries  10,856,430,  from  Ger- 
many and  other  Central  Powers  8,125,378,   from  neutral 


32  CHRISTIAN  AMERICANIZATION 

countries  2,599,512;  or  a  total  of  21,581,329 — that  is, 
20.8%  native  whites  of  foreign  parentage.  On  the  date  of 
the  selective  draft  census  computation,  there  were  14.1% 
foreign-born  whites.  These  studies  are  summed  up  in  an 
interesting  table  of  our  population,  July  I,  I9i7>  which  is 
worth  studying: 

Descendants  of  whites  enumerated   1790  38,828,000 

Descendants  of  immigrants,   1820-1880  17,687,952 

Native  whites  of  foreign  parentage  21,581,329 

Foreign-born   whites  14,662,261 

Total  whites  92,759,542 

Indians,  Negroes,   Asiatics,   etc.  10,875,758 

The  character  and  trend  of  our  American  life  and  institu- 
tions were  naturally  determined  by  the  men  and  women  who 
braved  the  hardships  of  pioneer  life  and  who,  obedient  to 
their  heavenly  vision,  brought  forth  upon  this  virgin  conti- 
nent a  new  nation  dedicated  to  the  proposition  that  all  men 
are  created  with  equal  rights  to  life,  liberty,  and  the  pur- 
suit of  happiness  and  with  a  fair  fighting  chance  to  realize 
them. 

Better  Than  a  "Melting  Pot."  America  is  not  a 

''melting  pot."  It  is  something  far  more  human  and 
vital,  more  divine  and  spiritual  than  that.  What  we 
need  to  keep  steadily  in  mind  is  that  the  process  of 
Americanization  is  not  the  reduction  of  all  to  a  common 
denominator  but  the  elevation  of  all  to  the  highest  possible 
plane;  to  consider  that  each  race  reacts  upon  the  other  to 
the  enrichment  of  all;  and  to  endeavor  to  realize  that  the 
various  racial  stocks,  thus  contributing,  lose  their  separate 
and  distinct  identity  in  the  building  of  a  new  entity,  a  new 
race,  which  shall  be  a  demonstration,  in  this  day  of  grace,  of 


AMERICA'S   GENIUS  FOR  ASSIMILATION  33 

the  blood  brotherhood  of  all  men  and  the  spiritual  oneness 
of  the  sons  of  God. 

The  Secret.  Such  an  achievement  as  this,  which  we 
have  thus  far  realized  approximately  and  still  maintain  as 
our  ideal,  is  not  an  accident.  It  is  not  national  conceit  to 
say  that  it  could  only  happen  under  conditions  such  as  those 
which  have  obtained  in  America.  And  as  this  is  the  last 
"new  world,"  it  is  inconceivable  that  it  can  ever  occur  again. 
Let  us  try  to  discover  some,  at  least,  of  the  factors  which 
have  contributed  to  this  success. 

Romantic  America.  America  has  been  for  millions 
a  land  of  romance.  That  doubtless  sounds  strange  to 
many  of  us  who  are  unromantic  and  who  love  to  call 
ourselves  "practical  and  hard-headed."  It  is  more  than 
distance  which  has  lent  this  enchantment.  To  be  sure, 
there  has  followed  all  too  often  the  bitter  disenchantment, 
but  to  those  who  have  persistently  followed  the  gleam, 
the  reality  has  proved  at  last  to  be  more  enchanting  than 
the  dream. 

In  the  first  chapter  of  Professor  Usher's  valuable  book. 
The  Rise  of  the  American  People,  is  a  beautiful  passage: 
"Homer  placed  the  Elysian  Fields,  the  abode  of  supreme 
happiness,  in  the  West,  the  land  of  the  setting  sun.  Out  to 
those  unknown  regions  where  Phoebus  Apollo  stabled  his 
steeds  at  evening,  went  Odysseus  to  talk  with  his  father's 
spirit;  out  into  the  West,  Virgil  led  Aeneas  to  see  the  dead 
heroes,  riding  and  leaping  in  the  green  meadows  under  per- 
petual sunshine.  The  grim  sagas  of  the  Norsemen  tell  us 
how  the  dead  chieftain  was  laid  upon  a  couch  on  board  his 
long    ship;    how    the    great    sail    was    hoisted    and    how 


34  CHRISTIAN  AMERICANIZATION 

the  raven  standard  flapped  sinister  wings  against  the 
mast ;  how  the  flaring  torches  flung  a  beam  of  light  to  guide 
the  ship  on  its  last  long  journey  out  into  the  West.  Some 
proph"etic  impulse  led  the  bards  to  make  the  West  symbolic 
of  the  hopes  and  ideals  of  the  Aryan  race.  .  .The  dull  eyes  of 
struggling  European  peasants  have  for  three  centuries  seen 
in  the  United  States  the  Elyslan  Fields.  .  .Only  from  Amer- 
ica came  back  word  that  Elysium  had  been  found,  a  land 
truly  flowing  with  milk  and  honey.  The  United  States 
holds  the  unique  and  superb  position  of  embodying  for  mil- 
lions of  men  and  women  the  racial  vision  of  an  abode  of  the 
Blessed  in  the  West." 

The  Youth  of  America.  We  have  been  able  to  stand 
the  strain  of  im.migration  because  we  are  5^oung.  We  have 
the  vitality  of  youth,  and  with  it  the  daring,  the  initiative, 
and  the  spirit  of  adventure.  There  are,  of  course,  conserva- 
tive elements  in  America,  but  Americans  as  a  people  are  not 
conservative.  The  life  of  America  is  still  fluid.  Our  in- 
stitutions and  our  society  are  still  virile  and  resilient.  For- 
eign visitors  usually  remark  upon  our  lack  of  dignity,  our 
exuberant  hilarity,  our  rather  rough  humor.  We  are  "rav/;" 
we  have  no  "past"  to  speak  of.  These  are  qualities  which 
are  characteristic  of  youth,  but  one  thing  of  which  we  are 
glad  and  for  which  we  do  not  apologize  is  our  age. 

How  young  we  are,  most  of  us  do  not  realize.  In  Seattle 
there  is  a  monument  marking  the  last  frontier  conflict  with 
the  Indians,  and  it  bears  a  date  of  sixty  years  ago.  It  was 
only  three  years  ago  that  Chicago  University,  one  of  the 
richest  universities  In  the  world,  celebrated  Its  twenty-fifth 
anniversary.     The  year  before.  Brown  University  was  ob- 


AMERICA'S  GENIUS   FOR  ASSIMILATION  35 

serving  Its  one  hundred  and  fiftieth  anniversary  and  of  course 
vras  worthy  of  the  respect  due  to  such  antiquity.  Harvard 
must  have  looked  upon  Brown's  pretensions  to  age  with  some 
degree  of  amusement,  for  Harvard  has  attained  a  ripe  old 
age  of  nearly  three  hundred  years. 

When  we  visit  Europe,  we  begin  to  realize  our  own 
youth.  University  College,  the  oldest  of  Oxford's  colleges, 
was  more  than  two  hundred  years  old  when  Columbus,  try- 
ing to  find  a  passage  to  India,  stumbled  upon  America.  If 
we  visit  the  University  in  Cracow,  we  find  in  the  quadrangle 
of  the  ancient  library  a  statue  to  Copernicus,  the  famous 
student  of  that  school  who  gave  us  our  modern  astronomical 
system.  An  American,  looking  about  this  beautiful  Gothic 
quadrangle  and  seeking  to  reckon  Its  age.  Is  rather  awed 
when  he  discovers  that  the  charter  of  the  old  University 
was  granted  nearly  a  thousand  years  ago.  Under  such  cir- 
cumstances we  begin  to  appreciate  that  it  is  because  of  her 
Immaturity  that  America  can  stand  the  strain  of  Immigra- 
tion on  such  a  scale  and  of  such  a  character  as  we  are  con- 
sidering. America  Is  not  finished.  She  Is  only  just  getting 
started,  and  the  newcomers  are  fellow  pilgrims  In  a  quest 
upon  which  she  has  set  forth  with  the  spirit  of  undaunted 
youth. 

America  has  plenty  of  elbow  room.  There  Is  space  for  all 
who  are  fitted  and  willing  to  take  their  part  in  her  life.  If 
we  compare  the  map  of  Europe  with  the  map  of  the  United 
States,  we  find  that  the  two  are  practically  equal  In  extent. 
According  to  the  census  of  1910,  America  had  a  population 
of  100,000,000.  Europe  at  the  same  time  had  a  population 
of   300,000,000.      Montana   is   one   of   our   largest   states, 


36  CHRISTIAN  AMERICANIZATION 

though  not  the  largest.  The  fastest  train  which  traverses 
it  requires  more  than  twenty-four  hours  to  cross  the  state. 
Hungary,  which  is  larger  than  Austria,  is  considerably 
smaller  than  Montana.  Yet  the  population  of  Montana  is 
less  than  500,000,  while  the  population  of  Hungary  was, 
before  the  war,  21,000,000,  and  Austria  at  the  same  time 
had  a  population  of  29,000,000. 

America's  unmeasured  natural  resources  have  been  brought 
to  the  attention  of  the  world  by  the  necessities  of  the  war, 
as  never  before ;  and  now  it  is  estimated  that  for  the  return- 
ing soldiers  still  more  millions  of  acres  of  uncultivated  land 
will  be  brought  under  cultivation.  America  has  room  enough 
for  many  more  millions  who  might  help  to  develop  her  re- 
sources; but  there  is  not  room  for  a  single  man  or  woman 
who  is  not  heart  and  soul  one  with  America,  loyal  to  her 
ideals  and  undivided  in  allegiance  to  her  highest  welfare. 

A  Land  of  Opportunity.  America  has  been  and  still 
is  the  land  of  opportunity.  Her  name  has  become  synony- 
mous with  a  new  chance  and  a  better  chance  at  the  best  which 
life  has  to  offer.  The  doors  of  opportunity  have  been  open 
to  the  most  energetic  newcomers. 

In  Cleveland  one  day,  I  saw  a  group  of  newly  arrived 
immigrants  crossing  the  Public  Square.  They  were  strange 
in  appearance  and  aroused  the  usual  amused  comment.  Walk- 
ing just  ahead  of  me,  two  men,  whom  I  would  have  thought 
to  be  prosperous  business  men  of  the  city,  called  attention 
to  the  group  and  chaffed  each  other.  One  remarked,  "That 
is  the  way  you  looked  when  you  landed  ten  years  ago." 

When  I  visited  Cracow,  I  fell  into  conversation  with  the 
porter  on  the  way  to  my  hotel.     Upon  learning  from  what 


AMERICA'S   GENIUS   FOR  ASSIMILATION  37 

American  city  I  came,  he  asked  me  if  I  happened  to  know 
a  certain  man  there  who,  he  said,  had  emigrated  to  America 
from  Cracow\  I  happened  to  know  him  as  the  president  of  the 
Chamber  of  Commerce.  In  turn,  I  asked  the  porter  if  he 
knew  this  gentleman's  brother-in-law  and  found  that  he, 
too,  had  gone  as  an  emigrant  from  the  city  of  Cracow  to  my 
city.  Now  he  is  one  of  the  city's  leading  and  most  respected 
business  men.  He  chanced  to  be  a  neighbor  of  mine,  and 
our  daughters  were  chums.  I  doubt  if  the  friends  of  either 
of  these  men  ever  thought  of  them  as  anything  but  native- 
born  Americans. 

But  the  boys  and  girls  and  the  "common  people'*  who  do 
not  become  famous  or  get  into  public  life,  the  thousands  and 
hundreds  of  thousands  who  here  have  found  themselves  as 
well  as  opportunity;  these  are  the  real  witnesses  to  America. 
In  contrast  to  the  "caste  system"  of  Europe,  w^hich  makes 
it  difficult  for  any  one  to  choose  his  trade  or  rise  above  the 
class  in  which  he  was  born,  America's  opportunity  has 
ever  loomed  large  and  beckoned  to  the  ambitious. 

A  Land  of  Liberty.  Neither  America's  youth,  the 
spacious  areas  represented  by  her  states,  nor  the  opportunity 
that  she  offers  to  the  ambitious  sufficiently  explains  the  genius 
which  America  possesses  for  assimilating  the  peoples  of  other 
lands.  Nothing  vrhich  we  have  cited  is  comparable  to  the 
position  she  holds  as  a  land  of  liberty.  The  foundations  of 
the  nation  were  laid  in  the  fundamental  conviction  that  the 
divine  right  of  human  freedom  vvas  supreme  above  any  claim 
of  kings  or  a  privileged  class;  that  men  were  endowed  with 
inalienable  rights,  political,  social,  and  religious;  that  before 
the  law  all  men  were  equal. 


38  CHRISTIAN  AMERICANIZATION 

When  these  revolutionary  doctrines  were  proclaimed  in 
1776,  they  stirred  the  profoundest  aspirations  in  the  minds 
and  hearts  of  men  all  over  the  vrorld.  America's  experi- 
ment has  been  a  demonstration  of  the  soundness  of  these 
doctrines  not  for  herself  alone  but  for  the  world.  It  is  not  too 
much  to  say  that  every  step  which  humanity  has  taken  to- 
ward human  freedom  and  political  democracy  since  that  day 
has  been  made  easier  because  of  America's  pioneering  ex- 
perience. 

Political,  social,  and  religious  refugees  have  sought  here 
an  asylum  from  persecution  and  have  either  remained  until 
a  happier  day  should  permit  them  to  return  or  have  helped 
to  build  here  the  nation  which  should  become  an  example 
to  the  world,  a  sign  and  symbol  for  aspiring  souls  everywhere. 
We  know  the  story  well,  that  tale  which  never  ceases  to 
thrill  us  when  it  is  told,  how  on  this  frontier  of  the  world 
men  have  found  what  elsewhere  had  been  denied  them. 

A  personal  experience  of  somewhat  more  than  ordinary 
interest  has  led  me  to  feel  that  the  average  native-born  Amer- 
ican of  colonial  stock  has  a  wholly  inadequate  conception  of 
this  treasure  of  liberty.  I  was  once  the  guest  of  a  friend  in 
the  city  of  Briinn,  the  capital  of  Moravia.  He  asked  me  if 
I  would  be  willing  to  lecture  on  Religious  Liberty  In  Amer- 
ica and  assured  me  that,  if  I  would  consent  to  do  so,  he 
would  secure  a  large  audience  for  me.  I  had  never  spoken 
on  that  subject.  I  would  as  readily  have  thought  of  lectur- 
ing on  The  Air  in  America  or  The  Grass  In  America  as  on 
Religious  Liberty  In  America.  But  with  a  desire  to  be 
accommodating  and  agreeable,  I  consented. 

My  host  was  a  wise  man  and  knew  I  needed  a  tonic;  so 


AMERICA'S    GENIUS   FOR   ASSIMILATION  39 

he  took  me  for  an  inspection  of  the  old  Speilberg,  the  most 
famous,  or  infamous,  prison  of  Austria.  It  is  a  massive  pile 
which  crowns  the  heights  above  the  city.  The  stone  can- 
non-balls which  the  Swedes  used  when  they  sought  to  capture 
the  citadel  in  other  days  may  still  be  seen  embedded  in  the 
walls.  I  was  conducted  through  the  various  cells  which  have 
historic  interest.  In  on^,  a  nobleman  had  committed  suicide ; 
in  another,  a  refined  noblewoman  had  gone  insane;  from  an- 
other, one  had  escaped  and  sought  refuge  with  the  Turks. 
A  series  of  chambers  still  contained  the  implements  of  tor- 
ture of  the  Spanish  Inquisition  and  the  Hussite  Wars.  But 
it  was  in  the  dungeon  that  the  refinement  of  cruelty  was 
perpetrated.  The  sewer  which  passed  through  these  cells 
was  arched  about  two  and  a  half  feet  above  the  floor.  At 
intervals  of  some  four  or  five  feet  were  openings  like 
manholes.  My  guides  explained  that  it  was  the  custom  to 
place  the  victims  in  these  man-holes  and  so  wall  them  in 
that,  while  having  freedom  above  the  waist,  they  could  not 
otherwise  move;  there  they  were  left,  either  to  starve  or  to 
be  eaten  by  the  swarms  of  rats  that  infested  the  sev/er.  From 
this  dungeon  they  led  me  to  the  office  of  the  prison  and  asked 
me  to  register.  My  imagination  was  on  fire,  and  I  realized 
as  never  before  what  America  had  meant  to  the  Bohemians 
and  to  other  subject  races  in  Austria.  I  wrote  with  much 
feeling,  as  I  registered,  ''Charles  A.  Brooks — America, 
thank  God!" 

That  night  I  spoke  to  the  radical  and  progressive  intel- 
lectuals of  that  city.  I  had  expected  a  group  of  church  peo- 
ple and  did  not  know  until  afterward  to  whom  I  was  speak- 
ing.    As  the  ^meeting  was  about  to  open,  an  officer  of  the 


40  CHRISTIAN  AMERICANIZATION 

government,  in  full  uniform  and  with  his  sword  dangling 
at  his  heels,  appeared  to  censor  the  proceedings.  I  was  to 
speak  on  one  of  the  most  dangerous  themes  which  could  be 
considered.  Religious  liberty  is  the  acid  test  of  all  liberty. 
I  am  conscious  that  it  was  a  very  unworthy  exposition  of 
a  great  theme.  Many  times  have  I  longed  to  have  another 
chance.  I  do  not  know  that  I  did  any  good  or  made  any 
contribution  to  the  cause  of  freedom,  but  this  I  do  know;  I 
am  a  better  American  for  that  experience  and  a  better  man, 
with  larger  sympathy  and  appreciation  of  the  struggles  and 
aspirations  of  men  and  women  who  have  not  had  the  price- 
less privilege  that  we  in  America  enjoy  and  who  have  sought 
here  the  liberty  elsewhere  denied  them.  It  is  what  America 
has  meant  to  thousands  as  a  land  of  liberty  that  has  con- 
stituted her  highest  glory,  for  the  greatness  of  a  nation  is 
not  in  her  area,  her  material  wealth,  or  her  population,  but 
in  her  ideals.  We  have  come  far  short  of  our  ideals,  but  we 
cling  to  them  and  will  not  relinquish  the  determination  to 
achieve  one  day  all  that  we  have  dreamed. 

Because  of  their  restricted  lives,  their  repressed  aspira- 
tions toward  liberty,  people  from  all  the  world  have  sought 
America.  The  Pilgrims,  Quakers,  Irish,  Germans,  French 
Huguenots,  Moravian  and  Bohemian  Brethren,  Catholics, 
jews,  Italians,  Hungarians,  Russians;  all  have  found  Amer- 
ica a  haven  of  refuge.  We  have  been  determined  to  build 
here  a  nation  that  all  the  broken  souls  of  men  may  seek  with 
the  certainty  that  here  they  may  find  not  only  refuge  but 
brotherhood.  We  must  see  to  it  that  each  American  shall 
have  the  honor  of  this  land  so  much  at  heart  that  he  will 
not  tolerate  any  stain  upon  it,  even  though  it  be  but  a  poor 


AMERICA'S   GENIUS   FOR  ASSIMILATION  41 

immigrant  who  is  wronged ;  that  each  shall  be  an  embodi- 
ment and  exponent  of  this  spirit.  Only  so  shall  we  be  able 
to  make  good  our  proud  and  w^orthy  boast  that  this  is  indeed 
a  land  of  liberty. 

On  a  recent  Fourth  of  July  in  Madison  Square  two  boj^s 
spoke  for  America.  One  was  of  the  lineage  of  colonial 
Americans;  the  other  was  of  the  lineage  of  recent  immi- 
grants.    They  told  this  story  of  America's  genius: 

First  Boy,  "I  am  an  American !  My  father  belongs  to  the 
Sons  of  the  Revolution,  my  mother  to  the  Colonial  Dames. 
One  of  my  ancestors  pitched  tea  overboard  in  Boston  Harbor. 
Another  stood  his  ground  with  Warren.  Another  hungered 
with  Washington  at  Valley  Forge.  My  forefathers  were 
Americans  in  the  making.  They  spoke  in  America's  council 
halls;  they  died  on  her  battle-fields;  they  commanded  her 
ships;  they  cleared  her  forests.  The  staunch  hearts  of  my 
ancestors  beat  fast  as  each  new  star  was  added  to  our  flag. 
Keen  eyes  saw  her  greater  glory,  the  sweep  of  her  fields, 
the  man-hives  in  her  billion-wired  cities.  Every  drop  of 
blood  in  me  holds  a  heritage  of  patriotism.  I  am  proud  of 
my  past.     I  am  an  American!" 

Second  Boy.  "I  am  an  American!  My  father  was  an 
atom  of  dust.  My  mother  was  a  straw  in  the  wind,  to  his 
serene  majesty.  One  of  my  ancestors  died  in  the  mines 
of  Siberia;  another  was  crippled  for  life  by  twenty  blov/s 
of  the  knout ;  another  was  killed  defending  his  home  during 
one  of  the  massacres.  The  history  of  my  ancestors  is  one 
trail  of  blood  to  the  palace  gate  of  the  great  White  Czar. 
But  then  the  dream  came — the  dream  of  America!  In  the 
light  of  the  Liberty  torch  the  atom  of  dust  became  a  man. 


42  CHRISTIAN  AMERICANIZATION 

the  straw  in  the  wind  became  a  woman  for  the  first  time. 
'See!'  said  my  father,  pointing  to  a  flag  that  was  fluttering 
near  by.  'That  flag  of  stars  and  stripes  is  yours.  It  is  the 
emblem  of  the  Promised  Land.  It  means,  my  son,  the  hope 
of  humanity.  Live  for  it,  die  for  it,  if  need  be.'  Under 
the  open  sky  of  my  new  country  I  swore  to  do  so,  and  every 
drop  of  blood  in  me  will  keep  that  vow.  I  am  proud  of 
my  future.     I  am  an  American!" 

The  genius  of  America  is  summed  up  in  those  two  de- 
clamations. Our  future  is  secure  so  long  as  we  can  hold  in 
balance  those  two  ideals:  fidelity  to  the  best  in  our  past  and 
fidelity  to  our  mission  to  humanity.  The  men  who  laid  the 
foundations  of  this  republic  were  prophets.  Nathan  Hale's 
regret  was  not  that  he  should  not  live  to  enjoy  freedom,  but 
that  he  had  but  one  life  to  give  to  the  making  of  the  Promised 
Land. 

The  closing  verses  of  that  wonderful  eleventh  chapter  of 
Hebrews  should  be  kept  ever  before  us:  "And  these  all, 
having  had  witness  borne  to  them  through  their  faith,  re- 
ceived not  the  promise,  God  having  provided  some  better 
thing  concerning  us,  that  apart  from  us  they  should  not  be 
made  perfect."  We  cannot  be  true  to  our  past  unless  we 
are  true  to  our  mission  to  humanity.  The  past  must  be 
justified  by  the  fidelity  of  the  present.  We  are  heirs  and 
stewards  of  that  past  and  will,  in  turn  pass  on  to  those  who 
come  after  us  the  nation  that  w^e  hold  in  trust.  We  must 
see  to  it  that  we  do  not  dissipate  that  trust  or  squander  our 
patrimony,  to  the  impoverishment  of  the  America  that  is 
to  be. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  LANGUAGE  QUESTION 

THE  popular  interest   in  the  use  of  foreign  languages 
has  been  such  as  to  make  this  phase  of  Americaniza- 
tion one  of  the  most  important  topics  of  discussion. 
There  are  very  natural  reasons  for  this  intense  interest. 

The  question  is  not  as  simple  as  it  appears  to  some  and 
cannot  be  disposed  of  summarily  by  legislation  or  executive 
decrees  restricting  the  use  of  any  language  but  English. 
There  are  many  who  advocate  such  direct  and  drastic  action 
and  who  are  impatient  with  any  delay  or  compromise;  but 
we  cannot  settle  a  matter  of  such  far-reaching  import  and 
with  as  many  ramifications  as  this  involves,  except  by  de- 
liberate and  well-considered  measures.  In  order  to  make 
progress  toward  our  goal,  we  must  be  able  to  carry  with  us 
all  the  fair-minded  people  who  are  directly  and  vitally  con- 
cerned in  these  matters.  The  admirable  statement  of  prin- 
ciple which  we  quoted  from  Professor  Commons  in  our  first 
chapter  may  serve  us  as  a  text  for  our  consideration  of  this 
subject:  *'To  be  great,  a  nation  need  not  be  of  one  class; 
it  must  be  of  one  mind.  If  we  think  together,  we  can  act 
together,  and  the  organ  of  common  thought  and  action  is 
common  language.*' 

We  believe  that  national  unity  lies  deeper  than  unity  of 
language.      Men   may  speak   the   same   language   and   have 

43 


44  CHRISTIAN  AMERICANIZATION 

nothing  else  in  common.  Men  may  speak  different  lan- 
guages and  yet  be  spiritually  united.  But  other  things  being 
equal,  there  is  far  greater  likelihood  of  being  able  to  think 
and  act  together  if  we  can  understand  one  another's  speech. 
We  might  achieve  an  apparent  unity  which  would  be  super- 
ficial and  artificial.  We  seek  a  spiritual  unity  which  is  far 
more  difficult  of  attainment.  This  higher  spiritual  unity  is 
dependent  upon  our  ability  to  do  the  simpler  thing,  to  achieve 
unity  of  language. 

The  Experience  of  Other  Countries.  Without 
going  unnecessarily  into  detail,  it  will  be  illuminating  for 
us  to  recall  the  experiences  of  other  countries  in  regard  to 
this  matter  of  a  common  language. 

In  the  French  section  of  Canada,  the  French  language  is 
the  language  of  business,  of  the  school,  and  of  the  church. 
Business  men,  especially  traveling  salesmen,  must  be  bi- 
lingual if  they  wish  to  do  an  extensive  business.  The  French 
people  cling  most  tenaciously  to  this  privilege,  which  has 
been  guaranteed  by  treaty. 

In  Belgium  there  is  a  curious  situation  in  respect  to  the 
language..  There  is  no  Belgian  language.  The  Belgian 
population  is  divided  between  the  Walloons  in  the  south  and 
the  Flemings  in  the  north.  French  is  the  official  language  of 
the  government  and  of  the  army,  although  this  is  not  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  wishes  of  the  Flemish,  who  constitute 
five  eighths  of  the  population.  The  Walloons  in  the  south 
speak  a  language  which  is  largely  French  (Romailic),  in- 
fluenced by  the  Celtic,  but  almost  unintelligible  to  a  French- 
man and  of  no  literary  influence.  The  Flemings,  in  the 
north,  speak  a  language  differing  but  slightly  from  the  Dutch. 


THE  LANGUAGE  QUESTION  45 

The  Flemish  element,  which  centers  culturally  in  Antwerp, 
has  had  the  greatest  artistic  and  literary  influence.  There 
is  a  kind  of  rainbow  shading  of  languages  from  The  Nether- 
lands through  Belgium  to  France.  The  question  of  lan- 
guages in  Belgium  has,  in  the  past,  been  the  source  of  much 
irritation.  The  German  war  governor,  during  the  period 
of  occupation,  attempted  to  split  the  country  and  array  the 
two  elements  against  each  other,  but  he  did  not  succeed. 
This  experience  illustrates  the  fact  that  nationality  is  deeper 
than  language  or  blood. 

In  Switzerland  there  are  three  official  languages,  a  fact 
which  must  be  taken  into  consideration  in  all  representative 
and  appointive  arrangements.  For  example,  there  are  nine 
federal  judges,  who  are  divided  into  groups  of  three  each, 
so  as  to  give  representation  to  the  three  official  languages. 
There  Is  no  national  standing  army,  but  each  canton  has  its 
own  army,  speaking  the  official  language  of  the  canton.  It 
is  one  of  the  wonders  of  nationality  that  Switzerland  has 
niyintalned  such  a  strong  and  impregnable  front  against  all 
separatist  movements.  Woodrow  Wilson  has  said,  "They 
. .  .show  the  world  how  Germans,  Frenchmen,  and  Italians, 
if  only  they  respect  each  the  other's  liberties  as  they  would 
have  their  own  respected,  may  by  mutual  helpfulness  and 
forbearance  build  up  a  union  at  once  stable  and  free."^  Many 
awkward  situations  are  naturally  created  by  three  official 
languages,  and  the  accommodations  necessitated  by  this  fact 
account  for  many  anomalous  features  of  the  Swiss  constitu- 
tion. 

Austria-Hungary  needs  only  to  be  recalled  as  a  horrible 
example  of  an  artificial  state  which  over-stayed  its  time  in 
1  Wilson,  The  State,  p.  30, 


46  CHRISTIAN  AMERICANIZATION 

history.  The  language  question  there  was  a  fertile  source 
of  discord  and  an  occasion  of  repressive  and  tyrannical 
measures  which  we  will  do  well  to  keep  in  mind  in  any 
program  of  Americanization.  Germany's  dealings  with  the 
French,  Danish,  and  Polish  languages  in  the  annexed  ter- 
ritories are,  likewise,  an  illustration  of  the  difficulties  involv- 
ed and  should  serve  as  a  warning  to  any  nation  which  aspires 
to  full  spiritual  unity. 

These  citations  illustrate  two  facts:  first,  that  language  is 
a  matter  to  be  handled  as  delicately  as  a  high  explosive; 
second,  that  a  difference  in  language  within  a  country  creates 
artificial  distinctions  which  are  at  best  awkward  and  are 
always  a  fertile  source  of  discord. 

Illuminating  Facts.  It  is  naturally  impossible  to  state 
with  exactness  how  many  people  in  America  are  unable  to 
speak  or  read  the  English  language.  The  Bureau  of  Educa- 
tion, which  is  the  government  agency  for  promoting  the 
teaching  of  English,  is  authority  for  the  statement  that  there 
are  more  than  3,250,000  persons  over  ten  years  of  age  who 
do  not  understand  English.  The  National  Americanization 
Committee,  one  of  the  pioneers  in  the  movement  to  spread 
the  use  of  English,  states  that  there  are  more  than  2,000,000 
persons  over  twenty-one  who  do  not  understand  English. 
We  are  informed  that  1,275,902  foreign-born  men  were 
registered  under  the  first  selective  draft,  and  the  amazing 
lack  of  ability  to  understand  English  on  the  part  of  thou- 
sands of  our  soldiers  has  become  a  matter  of  common  know- 
ledge. Of  course,  many  who  "speak  English"  are  unable 
to  read  a  newspaper  and  have  a  vocabulary  so  meager  that  it 
is  barely  sufficient  for  use  in  the  shops. 


THE  LANGUAGE  QUESTION  47 

There  are  many  areas  in  our  country  outside  the  large 
cities,  where  a  foreign  language  is  the  language  of  the  neigh- 
borhood and  English  is  foreign.  These  settlements  rep- 
resent a  serious  menace  to  complete  nation-wide  assimila- 
tion, because  of  their  insulation  from  contacts  that  might 
otherwise  be  relied  upon  to  spread  the  use  of  the  English  lan- 
guage. Social  and  missionary^  workers  in  our  large  cities 
report  uncounted  thousands  who,  after  many  years  of  resi- 
dence in  this  country,  do  not  know  English.  These  sug- 
gestive facts  are  sufficient  evidence  of  a  situation  which  is 
worthy  of  most  serious  consideration. 

The  Foreign  Language  Press.  The  wide-spread  in- 
fluence of  the  foreign-language  press  is  attested  by  many 
signs.  The  powder  it  wields  for  good  or  for  ill  is  immeasur- 
able. It  appeals  strongly  to  the  public  imagination  and 
seems  sinister,  partly  because  the  vast  majority  of  us  can- 
not read  the  various  languages.  Many  of  the  sheets  merely 
repeat  news  culled  from  the  English  papers  and  wield  no 
political  influence.  The  editorial  office  is  frequently  a  dingy 
little  room,  and  the  editors  lead,  financially,  a  precarious 
hand-to-mouth  existence.  But  there. are  many  ably  edited 
and  strongly  financed  papers  that  exert  a  powerful  and  wide- 
spread influence.  The  government  reports  a  circulation  of 
periodicals  of  more  than  1200  written  in  foreign  languages. 
There  are  600  German-language  periodicals  published  in 
the  United  States.  There  is  a  well-organized  Foreign  Lan- 
guages Press  Association  with  offices  in  the  Woolworth 
Building,  New  York  City.  In  191 5  this  Association  re- 
ported 764  different  periodicals  which  were  registered  in 
the  organization,  including  130  dailies.     The  combined  cir- 


48  CHRISTIAN  AMERICANIZATION 

culation  of  these  papers  aggregated  9,000,000.  Doubtless, 
this  list  represents  some  duplications.  Nevertheless,  the 
figures  are  impressive  and  suggestive. 

Foreign  Language  Societies.  In  any  enumeration  of 
conditions  representing  the  wide-spread  use  of  foreign  lan- 
guages as  the  medium  of  intercourse,  we  must  include  the 
many  societies  which  help  to  perpetuate  the  use  of  these 
languages  among  other  customs  associated  with  the  life  of 
other  da5^s  and  other  lands.  The  churches  which  use  a  for- 
eign language  in  their  public  worship  include  both  Protest- 
ants and  Catholics.  A  majority  of  the  Jewish  synagogues 
in  our  great  cities  use  either  Yiddish  or  some  other  foreign 
language.  In  any  large  city  directory  the  section  devoted  to 
the  classification  of  societies  instantly  impresses  one  with  the 
limitless  capacity  for  organization  possessed  by  all  immi- 
grant groups. 

Foreign  Language  Schools.  Foreign-language  paro- 
chial schools  are  to  be  found  in  all  of  our  cities  and  repre- 
sent both  Catholic  and  Protestant  faiths.  In  some  western 
communities  the  public  schools  were  conducted  in  foreign 
languages  up  to  the  time  of  our  entrance  into  the  war.  No 
analysis  of  the  factors  to  be  considered  in  dealing  with  the 
problem  of  foreign  languages  would  be  of  great  value  which 
failed  to  take  into  account  the  seriousness  of  the  parochial 
school  situation  as  it  exists  to-day. 

In  twenty-eight  of  the  leading  cities  for  which  we  have 
figures,  attendance  at  parochial  schools  has  increased  from 
ten  to  fifteen  per  cent,  more  rapidly  than  in  our  public 
schools.  In  Cleveland,  two  years  ago,  there  were  more 
than  27,000  children  in  parochial  schools;  this  number  in- 


THE  LANGUAGE  QUESTION  49 

eludes  nearly  half  the  children  of  school  age.  At  the  same 
time  in  Chicago,  there  were  300,000  children  in  the  public 
school,  while  there  were  112,000  in  parochial  schools. 

One  racial  group  may  stand  as  an  illustration  of  the  diffi- 
culty experienced  in  bringing  American  influences  to  bear 
upon  the  children  of  immigrants  who  do  not  enter  the  public 
schools.  There  are,  in  round  numbers,  3,000  Lithuanian 
children  in  the  parochial  schools  of  Chicago.  These  rep- 
resent a  Lithuanian  population  of  50,000  in  the  city.  It  is 
startling  to  be  informed  by  competent  authorities  that  about 
three  years  ago  there  were  only  twenty  Lithuanians  in  the 
high  schools  of  Chicago. 

As  concerns  the  parochial  school  in  Milwaukee,  Wiscon- 
sin, Newark,  New  Jersey,  and  scores  of  other  cities  with 
a  high  percentage  of  foreign-born  population,  the  situation 
is  such  as  to  give  intelligent  Americans  the  gravest  concern. 
The  report  of  the  Educational  Commission  of  Massachusetts 
stated:  "Many  of  these  parochial  school-teachers  have  but 
a  limited  knowledge  of  the  English  language;  comparatively 
few  speak  it  fluently;  some  do  not  speak  it  at  all."  There 
are  a  few  higher  institutions  of  learning  which  are  conducted 
in  foreign  languages.  Some  of  these  are  for  the  training  of 
ministers  and  missionaries.  There  is  a  Finnish  Socialist 
college  in  Minnesota  and  at  least  one  Polish  college  for  gen- 
eral education.  There  are  also  some  Scandinavian  higher 
schools. 

The  Issues  Involved.  We  must  face  this  matter 
honestly  and  without  prejudice.  Hatred  of  a  foreign  lan- 
guage just  because  we  cannot  understand  it,  is  weak  and 
foolish  and  is  unbecoming  to  intelligent  minds.     The  Ian- 


50  CHRISTIAN  AMERICANIZATION 

guages  of  other  lands  represent  the  mother  tongues  of  some 
of  the  world's  greatest  philosophers  and  artists  and  have 
been  the  vehicle  of  lofty  and  ennobling  utterances.  Let  us 
rid  ourselves  of  any  animus  which  remotely  suggests  dislike 
for  foreign  languages,  per  sc,  and  face  the  issue  on  grounds 
of  national  unity  and  community  of  interest.  We  are  neither 
intolerant  nor  provincial  nor  nativistic  when  we  press  the 
absolute  necessity  of  the  use  of  English  for  the  sake  of  na- 
tional unity.  It  goes  without  argument  that,  unless  there 
is  a  common  language,  there  cannot  be  perfect  assimilation 
upon  the  spiritual  basis  which  we  have  set  forth  as  our  ideal 
for  America.  Let  us  make  this  clear  and  unmistakable  and 
repeat  it  until  no  one  can  misunderstand  us.  However,  we 
must  grant  to  ever}-  newcomer  the  privilege  of  retaining  the 
use  of  his  mother  tongue ;  to  speak  it,  to  read  it,  to  pray  in 
it,  and  to  sing  in  it.  We  would  be  bigoted,  indeed,  if  we  as- 
sumed a  position  of  intolerance  and  repression.  Our  position 
should  be  not  negative  but  positive.  Our  objective  should 
be  not  the  repression  of  foreign  languages  but  the  knowledge 
and  use  of  the  English  language. 

We  have  seen  that  it  is  possible  to  establish  a  working 
basis  of  national  unity  with  more  than  one  language ;  but  we 
appreciate  at  once  the  artificial  nature  of  the  adjustment  re- 
quired to  operate  under  such  a  system.  In  America  the 
question  is  not  a  matter  of  t^vo  languages  or  three,  as  in  the 
case  of  Switzerland,  but  of  fifty  or  more.  Surely  no  one 
would  be  insane  enough  to  advocate  making  this  officially  a 
polyglot  nation.  We  are  not  discussing  an  academic  ques- 
tion nor  dealing  with  a  problem  in  abstract  philosophy.  We 
are  thinking  in  terms  of  community  life  and  umty  of  action. 


THE  LANGUAGE  QUESTION  51 

We  have  In  this  vast  country  many  natural  and  inevitable 
barriers  to  unity  of  action,  without  adding  artificial  ones. 
It  is  sufficiently  difficult  to  make  one's  self  understood  when 
people  speak  the  same  language  and  have  the  same  general 
hereditary  background.  If  to  this  common  human  limita- 
tion must  be  added  another,  if  we  must  overcome  the  bar- 
rier of  a  foreign  speech  in  any  attempt  to  discuss  our  com- 
munity problem,  we  are  driven  to  despair.  We  cannot  hope 
for  assimilation  and  all  which  depends  upon  it  unless  we  can 
achieve  unity  of  language. 

A  Conserving  Force.  Foreign  languages  are  a  factor 
— perhaps  we  may  say  the  most  potent  factor — in  the  per- 
petuation of  foreign  ideas.  We  have  been  officially  and 
solemnly  assured,  upon  the  highest  authority,  that  German 
Kultur  cannot  be  appreciated  except  through  the  medium 
of  the  German  language.  No  translation  can  sufficiently 
interpret  the  spirit  which  Inheres  In  the  language.  We  may 
discount  this  considerably  as  prejudiced  testimony  and  re- 
mark, In  passing,  that  there  is  a  ver>^  real  and  almost  in- 
separable connection  between  language  and  ideas.  Ludwig 
Fulda  Is  quoted  as  saying  in  his  American  ImpressionSj 
"Germanlzation  Is  synonymous  with  causing  to  speak  Ger- 
man, and  speaking  German  means  to  remain  German."  For 
every  language  the  claim  may  be  made  that  to  speak  the 
mother  tongue  is  to  be  held  true  to  the  ideas  which  are  as- 
sociated with  it. 

It  Is  reported  that  a  German  church  in  Pennsylvania  re- 
cently considered  changing  from  the  German  to  the  English 
language.  After  some  younger  men  had  raised  the  question 
and  had  argued  for  the  change,  the  matter  was  settled  by 


52  CHRISTIAN  AMERICANIZATION 

a  resolution  which  made  this  suggestive  statement,  "German 
has  been  the  language  of  this  church  for  175  years,  and  as 
long  as  the  grass  is  green  and  the  sky  is  blue,  it  will  con- 
tinue to  be."  It  is  evident  that,  in  that  church,  conserva- 
tion relies  upon  language  for  maintaining  the  status  quo. 

Without  here  discussing  the  question  as  to  what  conces- 
sions should  be  made,  let  us  keep  clearly  in  mind  the  fact 
that  the  use  of  foreign  languages  constitutes  an  actual  re- 
sistance to  the  forces  of  assimilation.  It  may  not  be  a  de- 
liberate or  intentional  or  conscious  resistance,  but  in  effect 
it  is  a  barrier  to  complete  and  perfect  assimilation.  This  is 
not  true  of  any  one  language  more  than  another,  but  it  is 
true  in  a  general  way  of  all  foreign  languages. 

Unity  in  Family  Life.  One  of  the  tragedies  which 
develops  in  the  families  of  immigrants  is  the  rift  between 
parents  and  children,  due  to  the  question  of  language.  If 
the  children  attend  the  public  school,  they  learn  English 
quickly  and  as  quickly  forget  the  mother  tongue  of  their 
parents.  They  soon  resent  the  popular  taint  connected  with 
their  being  "foreigners"  and  come  not  only  to  renounce  their 
heritage  but  to  despise  their  parents.  The  appalling  lack 
of  discipline,  the  breakdown  in  respect  and  reverence  among 
the  children  of  the  foreign-born  in  America,  is  a  condition 
which  every  social  and  missionary  worker  views  only  with 
pain  and  misgivings. 

The  mother  is  usually  the  conservative  member  of  the 
family,  religiously,  socially,  and  nationally.  The  husband, 
less  affected  than  the  children,  is,  none  the  less,  much  more 
easily  inducted  into  the  knowledge  of  American  ways  and 
the  mysteries  of  the  English  language;  so  the  mother  is  the 


THE  LANGUAGE  QUESTION  53 

one  who  suffers  most  keenly.  We  lose  the  most  valuable 
asset  for  our  national  well-being  when  we  weaken  the  unity 
and  influence  of  the  home  life. 

Duties  of  Citizenship.  In  a  democracy  we  are  likely 
to  put  the  primary  emphasis  upon  human  rights.  The  con- 
stitution makes  very  explicit  provision  for  safeguarding  our 
rights  against  all  infringement  or  abridgment.  Our  persons, 
our  property,  our  spiritual  liberties  are  all  hedged  about  with 
every  precaution  against  violation.  But  duties  are  not  so 
clearly  defined.  The  duties  of  supporting  the  state  by  paying 
taxes  and  rendering  military  service  are  specified,  but  these, 
with  obedience  to  law  and  order,  practically  exhaust  the  list. 

A  knowledge  of  the  English  language  is  now  a  condition 
for  naturalization.  One  wonders  why  any  one  has  ever 
been  permitted  to  become  a  citizen  without  fulfilling  this 
condition.  There  is  a  wide  range  of  duties  to  the  commu- 
nity which  are  vital  to  its  welfare  but  are  all  extra-legal. 
Moral  and  social  obligations,  the  sense  of  social  responsibility, 
intelligent  appreciation  of  the  issues  at  stake;  all  these 
spiritual  rather  than  legal  duties  are  not  enjoined  by  the 
constitution,  but  they  are  essential  to  a  sound  public  opinion 
and  are,  therefore,  of  the  utmost  importance  in  a  democracy. 
As  every  socially  minded  person  has  learned  by  experience, 
it  is  difficult  enough,  even  under  the  most  favorable  cir- 
cumstances, to  keep  the  morale  of  the  community  high  and 
steady;  but  when  we  interject  the  element  of  diversity  of 
tongue,  our  democracy  becomes  another  Tower  of  Babel. 
This  matter  of  language  is  not  one  of  sentiment  but  of 
democratic  efficiency  and  common  sense. 

We  are  an  easily  deluded  people,  if  we  imagine  that  we 


54  CHRISTIAN  AMERICANIZATION 

can  rise  to  the  full  measure  of  our  democratic  power  and 
ideals  when  we  are  careless  or  indifferent  concerning  public 
and  community  responsibility.  We  have  misgivings  about 
the  equitable  distribution  of  wealth,  but  we  cannot  settle  a 
question  like  that  until  we  can  settle  a  more  vital  one — that 
is,  the  equitable  distribution  of  individual  responsibility,  the 
duty  which  every  citizen  owes  to  the  republic. 

Educational  Problems.  The  vexed  question  of  for- 
eign languages  has  been  a  very  live  one  wherever  the  policy 
concerning  public  schools  is  under  consideration,  and  espe- 
cially in  those  states  where  there  is  a  large  percentage  of 
foreign-born.  The  principle  of  state  control  in  education  is 
everywhere  recognized  as  fundamental  and  essential  to  the 
welfare  of  the  state.  This  is  peculiarly  important  in  a  demo- 
cracy. It  would  seem  to  be  the  most  natural  thing  and  the 
evident  duty,  on  the  part  of  the  state,  to  insist  upon  all  in- 
struction for  children  being  given  in  the  language  of  the 
country.  If  state  control  rests  upon  the  right  and  duty  of 
the  state  to  train  its  future  citizens,  it  certainly  is  the  part 
of  wisdom  to  see  to  it  that  the  training  shall  be  given  in  the 
language  of  the  nation,  whether  that  training  be  given  in 
public  or  in  private  schools.  There  is  very  little  dispute 
about  this  general  principle.  The  difficulty  is  encountered 
a  little  further  on.  There  the  question  becomes:  Has  any 
immigrant  group  a  just  claim  upon  which  to  base  a  plea  that 
instruction  in  the  parents'  mother  tongue  be  given  to  chil- 
dren in  the  public  schools? 

The  aggressiveness  and  zeal  on  the  part  of  certain  racial 
groups  which  cling  tenaciously  to  their  own  languages  have 
raised  this  issue,  and  in  many  localities  it  has  become  very 


THE  LANGUAGE  QUESTION  55 

acute,  involving  a  principle  vrhich  we  must  endeavor  to 
clarify.  If  the  claim  of  one  group  that  provision  must  be 
made  in  the  public  schools  for  its  children  to  receive  instruc- 
tion in  their  parents'  mother  tongue  is  justified,  has  not  every 
other  foreign  group  an  equally  valid  claim  that  similar  pro- 
vision be  made  for  its  children?  If  German  must  be  pro- 
vided, why  not  Italian,  Bohemian,  Hungarian,  or  Swedish? 
Personally,  I  have  advocated  that  the  children  of  parents 
who  are  unable  to  speak  the  English  language  should  be  at 
great  pains  to  retain  the  knowledge  of  their  parents'  mother 
tongue  for  the  sake  of  family  unity,  but  it  does  not  necessarily 
follow  that  it  is  the  duty  of  the  state  to  provide  such  in- 
struction at  public  expense.  It  is  the  privilege  of  any  family 
to  provide  such  instruction  for  their  children,  but  it  is  not 
the  duty  of  the  state. 

The  cultural  value  and  utility  of  foreign  languages  and 
the  provision  which  should  be  made  for  them  is  a  question 
for  educational  experts.  We  should  be  clear  in  our  minds 
on  the  central  issues.  We  must  insist  that  the  perpetuation 
of  foreign  languages  for  sentimental  reasons  at  public  ex- 
pense is  not  consistent  with  national  unity.  And  of  far 
greater  importance,  the  general  instruction  of  children  in 
both  public  and  private  schools  must  be  given  in  the  lan- 
guage of  the  country. 

Religious  Problems.  The  use  of  a  foreign  language  in 
religious  worship  is  one  of  the  most  delicate  phases  of  the 
language  problem.  The  experience  of  being  for  any  length 
of  time  in  a  foreign  country,  hearing  only  a  foreign  tongue 
spoken  and  surrounded  constantly  by  foreign  customs  and 
unfamiliar  sights,  enables  one  to  appreciate  what  it  means 


56  CHRISTIAN  AMERICANIZATION 

to  pass  from  these  sights  and  sounds  Into  a  church  where 
one's  native  tongue  is  spoken  and  join  In  worship  with 
people  who  are  "own  folks."  If  any  of  us  have  had  that 
experience,  we  have  discovered  an  unsuspected  depth  of  ap- 
peal in  the  familiar  scripture  and  songs,  and  a  stirring  of 
emotions  which  was  doubtless  a  revelation  to  us.  The  reli- 
gious sanctities  lie  so  far  beneath  the  surface,  are  so  vital  and 
elemental,  and  so  Involve  our  deepest  emotions  and  highest 
and  truest  sentiments,  that  they  are  even  more  vital  than 
the  question  of  national  unity.  They  are  as  elemental  as 
the  love  of  parents  and  wife  and  children.  They  cannot  be 
denied.    They  brook  no  restraint. 

We  have  not  forgotten  that  we  have  just  stated  the  prin- 
ciple of  the  conserving  force  of  a  foreign  language.  We  are 
not  indifferent  to  the  fact  that  probably  no  single  agency  or 
institution  exercises  so  powerful  an  Influence  In  conserving 
the  ancient  heritages  and  authorities  as  does  public  worship 
In  the  mother  tongue  of  the  foreign-born.  Most  of  our 
home  mission  boards  employ  missionaries  or  aid  in  supporting 
pastors  who  minister  to  their  own  racial  group  in  a  foreign 
language.  The  policy  which  has  been  pursued  has  been 
justified  on  the  grounds  that  we  were  meeting  the  religious 
needs  of  these  people  through  the  only  possible  medium.  Now 
we  are  beginning  to  ask  ourselves  the  question  whether  this 
initial  stage  has  been  unduly  prolonged. 

Deliberation  Needed.  In  the  past  we  have,  as  a  na- 
tion, been  indifferent  to  the  deep  significance  of  such  mat- 
ters as  we  are  here  considering.  It  Is  important,  therefore, 
that  we  should  approach  the  problem  now  in  a  spirit  of  fair- 
ness and  deliberation  rather  than  in  passion.     We  cannot 


THE  LANGUAGE  QUESTION  57 

undo  the  harm  and  mischief  of  the  past  by  rushing  blindly 
to  the  opposite  extreme.  We  only  create  new  difficulties  by 
pursuing  such  a  course.  Popular  sentiment  is  more  easily 
swayed  by  words  than  by  ideas.  When  the  passions  of  the  mul- 
titude are  deeply  stirred,  a  catching  phrase  has  more  in- 
fluence with  the  multitude  than  the  wisest  reasoning.  We 
have  need  of  all  the  wisdom  and  restraint  we  can  summon 
in  order  to  avoid  the  dangers  of  hysteria.  We  must  be  pre- 
pared to  take  all  measures  with  a  deliberation  born  of 
clear  vision  and  thorough  appreciation  of  all  practical  phases 
of  the  issue.  We  must  act  with  that  settled  purpose  be- 
coming to  high-minded  people  who,  undeterred  by  diffi- 
culties, seek  a  worthy  goal  and  persist  long  after  the  atten- 
tion of  the  crowd  has  been  distracted  and  its  passions  have 
cooled. 

Important  Distinctions.  In  considering  the  question 
of  languages,  vv^e  have  endeavored  to  make  clear  that  its  sig- 
nificance lies  in  what  it  indicates.  It  is  symptomatic  of  what 
is  beneath  the  surface. 

We  must  distinguish  between  three  different  phases  or 
aspects  of  this  question,  not  only  because  each  phase  indicates 
something  significantly  different  but  because  each  calls  for 
a  different  course  of  action,  a  different  remedy.  These 
phases  represent  three  distinct  groups  of  people  v/ith  whom 
we  must  reckon.  The  phase  which  has  received  the 
greatest  public  attention  and  which,  in  a  way,  is  the  most 
critical  and  serious,  Is  the  aggressive  propaganda  for  per- 
petuating and  extending  the  use  of  a  foreign  language  for 
the  sake  of  sentiment  and  the  culture  which  it  carries.  This 
has  primarily  to  do  with  the  German  language.    The  second 


58  CHRISTIAN  AMERICANIZATION 

phase  Is  the  strong  sentiment  on  the  part  of  large  numbers  of 
people  of  foreign  antecedents  which  has  made  them  cling 
to  the  use  of  their  native  language  In  religious  worship  and 
in  those  social  gatherings  which  keep  alive  and  glowing  the 
memories  of  their  fatherland.  These  people,  almost  without 
exception,  are  able  to  speak  and  read  English,  but  they  feel 
a  certain  pride  and  a  sense  of  duty  in  conserving  the  language 
which  is  their  mother  tongue. 

The  third  phase  has  been  receiving  earnest  attention,  be- 
cause we  have  come  to  see  that  we  have  heretofore  been  too 
indifferent  to  its  significance.  This  concerns  almost  ex- 
clusively the  Immigrants  who  have  come  to  America  in  more 
recent  years.  While  multitudes  of  these  are  still  unas- 
simllated,  they  have  not  attained  that  highly  organized  race 
consciousness  and  group  separateness  which  makes  itself  felt 
in  the  other  groups  to  which  we  have  referred.  Any  sweep- 
ing statements  regarding  the  use  of  foreign  languages  will 
probably  be  incorrect,  and  any  salutary  measures  for  deal- 
ing with  them  will  probably  fail  of  accomplishing  their  end, 
unless  they  distinguish  clearly  between  these  groups. 

Enemies  in  America.  As  a  people,  we  have  been  so 
completely  indifferent  or  so  easy-going  and  tolerant  that 
many  of  our  fellow  citizens  are  not  quite  able  to  understand 
the  meaning  of  the  volcanic  eruption  which  has  taken  place. 
There  are  thoughtless  and  Irresponsible  people  who  are  "more 
vocal  than  influential"  (as  the  President  has  said  of  another 
group)  and  who  may  have  done  the  cause  of  national  unity 
harm  because  of  their  zeal.  But  sober  and  thoughtful  people 
feel  deeply  on  this  question.  They  resent  the  un-American 
propaganda    and    ideals    cherished    by    fanatical    men    and 


THE  LANGUAGE  QUESTION  59 

women  from  other  lands,  who  have  been  accorded  every 
right  and  privilege  of  American  citizenship  and  yet  have 
worked  tirelessly  and  with  consummate  skill  to  disrupt  our 
national  unity  and  perpetuate  race  consciousness  and  separ- 
ateness.  The  people  who  have  done  this  are,  at  heart, 
enemies  of  America.  We  have  no  desire  to  prolong  un- 
necessarily the  bitterness  of  the  war,  now  that  it  is  over,  but 
we  shall  have  lost  much  for  which  we  fought  if  we  fail  to 
heed  the  lesson  that  the  war  has  taught. 

To  return  to  the  first  group,  which  engages  in  aggressive 
propaganda,  we  come  to  the  activities  of  the  National  Ger- 
man-American Alliance.  While  the  Alliance  has  been  dis- 
solved by  the  government,  we  can  hardly  believe  that  the 
persons  who  composed  it  have  been  regenerated.  We  must 
discriminate  and  recognize  the  fact,  which  we  gladly  admit, 
that  the  Alliance  did  not  represent  a  majority  of  the  Amer- 
icans of  German  descent,  nor  the  best  element  in  that  racial 
group.  It  had  as  one  of  the  most  important  points  in  its 
program  the  introduction  of  the  German  language  into  the 
public  schools.  Local  societies  were  urged  to  use  their  in- 
fluence and  take  the  necessary  practical  steps  to  compel 
school  boards  to  put  German  into  the  curriculum.  The  very 
active  Federation  of  German  Societies  in  Nebraska  was  held 
up  as  a  model  because  it  had  brought  about  the  enactment 
of  a  law  making  the  teaching  of  a  foreign  language  com- 
pulsory when  fifty  parents  of  children  demanded  it.  In 
Omaha,  where  there  were  3,500  children  taking  German, 
the  official  visitor  of  the  Federation  was  delighted  to  find 
with  what  a  fine  Berlin  accent  the  children  were  speaking 
and  with  what  fervor  they  sang  "The  Watch  on  the  Rhine." 


60  CHRISTIAN  AMERICANIZATION 

Indiana  and  Ohio  had  enacted  similar  laws.  Chicago  was 
reported  to  have  20,000  children  in  the  grades  studying 
German.  The  Alliance  was  endeavoring  to  make  a  know- 
ledge of  German  a  requirement  for  admission  into  state 
universities  or  accepted  as  a  substitute  for  Latin.  A  rep- 
resentative of  the  Alliance,  who  was  an  Inspector  of  this 
phase  of  the  organization's  work,  reported  that,  wherever 
these  schools  prospered,  the  children  remained  German  in 
spirit  and  In  sentiment  to  the  third  generation.  It  was 
discovered  in  some  of  the  camps  that  there  were  second 
generation  "Americans"  of  German  descent  who,  when 
drafted,  were  unable  to  speak  English.  The  Alliance  also 
had  a  committee  on  text-books  to  make  certain  that  German 
history  and  Kultur  were  fairly  presented  from  the  German 
point  of  view. 

We  cite  these  facts  that  we  may  understand  the  reactions 
which  followed  upon  the  awakening  of  the  American  pop- 
ulation in  these  states  to  a  full  consciousness  of  the  signifi- 
cance of  the  propaganda.  Six  states  have  either  restricted  the 
use  of  the  German  language  or  forbidden  It  altogether  In 
public  assemblies.  This  was  a  war  measure.  German  text- 
books have  been  examined  and  thrown  into  the  scrap-heap 
in  many  cities  all  over  the  country.  Either  the  circulation 
of  German  language  publications  has  been  forbidden,  or 
dealers  have  refused  to  handle  them.  There  has  been  a 
wide-spread  diminution  of  the  use  of  all  foreign  languages, 
and  the  most  drastic  measures  have  been  advocated 
to  restrict  or  abolish  the  use  of  any  language  but  the 
English. 

Loyal  Americans,     The  second  group,  which  clings  to 


THE  LANGUAGE  QUESTION  61 

the  use  of  the  mother  tongue  In  worship  and  in  social  gather- 
ings, Includes  many  loyal  Americans  of  German  antecedents, 
and  among  them  there  has  been  a  voluntary  and  very  whole- 
some reaction.  It  is  Impossible  to  state  with  any  degree  of 
accuracy  just  how  many  churches  have  either  entirely 
abandoned  the  use  of  a  foreign  language  or  Introduced  Eng- 
lish and  now  carry  on  their  work  In  both  languages.  This 
has  been  markedly  true  of  Scandinavian  people  in  certain 
sections.  In  services  of  public  worship,  the  English  language 
has  been  used  for  the  first  time  or  greatly  extended.  Many 
foreign-language  publications  have  voluntarily  suspended, 
and  a  reaction  in  favor  of  English  has  set  in  strongly  in 
every  section  of  the  country. 

Measures  o£  Doubtful  Wisdom.  There  can  be  no 
doubt  that  the  restrictive  measures  which  have  been  taken 
by  executive  order  will  be  reflected  later  in  legislation.  It 
Is,  therefore,  important  that  we  consider  very  carefully  just 
what  measures  should  be  taken. 

In  the  first  place,  the  laws  which  have  compelled  the  intro- 
duction of  a  foreign  language  into  the  curriculum  of  a  pub- 
lic school  should  be  repealed.  It  is  our  duty  to  be  alert  and 
to  resist  every  form  of  aggressive  propaganda  for  extending 
the  use  of  foreign  languages  or  fastening  such  languages 
permanently  upon  any  institution.  As  we  have  already 
said,  this  is  a  matter  of  private  privilege  and  not  a  public 
duty.  True  culture  does  not  require  a  press  agent  and  a 
political  lobby.  The  German  language  must  stand  with 
French  and  Spanish  and  ask  no  special  favors.  Who  ever 
heard  of  a  French  propaganda  to  force  French  culture  on 
America?    Yet  educated  people  in  America  have,  as  a  rule, 


62  CHRISTIAN  AMERICANIZATION 

been  more  influenced  by  French  ideas  and  culture  than  by 
those  of  any  other  foreign  nation,  with  the  exception  of 
England. 

But  there  is  great  danger  in  legislation  of  a  restrictive  or 
compulsory  nature,  because  of  the  psychological  reaction 
which  may  follow  and  which  would  most  certainly  defeat 
the  end  desired.  The  policy  of  Germany  and  Austria-Hun- 
gary has  been  identical  at  this  point.  By  harsh  measures, 
they  forced  the  national  language  upon  their  subjects,  and 
they  enforced  the  restrictions  relentlessly.  In  Germany,  the 
use  of  any  foreign  language  in  a  public  assembly  was  for- 
bidden  except  by  special  permit,  and  then  twenty-four  hours' 
notice  was  required  and  two  representatives  of  the  police 
must  be  present  and  report  the  proceedings.  The  repressive 
and  harsh  measures  to  which  Count  Apponyi,  minister  of 
public  education  in  Hungary,  resorted  would  have  turned 
some  of  us  into  anarchists.  I  have  spoken  in  Austria  with 
a  censor  of  the  police  sitting  with  open  note-book  to  report 
what  I  might  say.  Thomas  Capek,  in  his  book,  The  Slovaks 
of  Hungary,  tells  us  that  Slovak  students  in  the  theological 
school  who  were  found  conversing  in  their  mother  tongue 
were  severely  punished.  It  would  be  unwise  for  us  to  resort 
to  such  measures,  and  every  true  friend  of  democracy  in 
America  should  be  as  vigilant  to  guard  against  such  foolish 
coercion  and  restriction  as  he  should  be  against  the  menacing 
encroachments  of  foreign-language  propaganda  itself. 

The  Governors  of  several  western  states  issued  executive 
orders  which  were  designed  to  seal  the  lips  of  all  foreign- 
speaking  people  of  those  states.  One  of  these  orders  was 
more  like  an  edict  of  a  czar  or  a  kaiser  than  a  proclamation 


THE  LANGUAGE  QUESTION  63 

of  a  governor  of  one  of  the  United  States.  Of  course  it 
was  intended  to  be  in  effect  only  during  the  war.  The 
executive  order  was  as  follows:  First:  English  should  be 
and  must  be  the  only  medium  of  instruction  in  public, 
private,  denominational,  or  other  similar  schools.  Second: 
Conversation  in  public  places,  on  trains,  and  over  the  tele- 
phone should  be  in  the  English  language.  Third:  All 
public  addresses  should  be  in  the  English  language.  Fourth: 
Let  those  who  cannot  speak  or  understand  the  English  lan- 
guage conduct  their  religious  worship  in  their  homes. 

The  utter  futility  of  such  proclamations  to  accomplish 
the  desired  end  should  be  obvious.  Their  actual  effect  is  to 
fasten  more  firmly  the  bands  of  the  past  and  to  endear  the 
native  speech  which  is  being  persecuted.  It  would  make  our 
national  language  hated  and  despised  and  produce  an  ani- 
mosity which  we  could  never  overcome.  A  man  who  could 
give  only  a  poor  exhibition  of  his  ability  to  speak  his  mother 
tongue  or  that  of  his  parents,  and  who  had  no  desire  to 
perpetuate  it,  would  be  roused  to  champion  the  cause  of  the 
language  placed  under  the  ban  if  any  attempt  were  made 
either  to  force  the  use  of  the  English  language  or  to  forbid 
the  use  of  another  language.  During  the  war  we  became 
amazingly  and  unprecedentedly  obedient  and  submissive. 
We  were  determined  at  any  cost  to  win  the  war.  But  we 
are  not  ready — or  we  should  not  be — to  surrender  our 
cherished  liberties  and  resort  to  autocratic  measures  to  en- 
force an  artificial  unity  which  has  no  value. 

We  must  remind  ourselves  that  our  ideal  is  not  a  formal 
and  artificial  national  unity  but  a  moral  and  spiritual  unity, 
and  we  need  constantly  to  repeat  that  such  a  lofty  goal  can 


64  CHRISTIAN  AMERICANIZATION 

be  attained  only  by  spiritual  processes.  While  we  must  be 
vigilant  against  aggression  and  unremitting  in  our  resistance 
to  every  insidious  enemy  of  our  unity,  we  must  remember 
that  unless  we  can  convert  the  patrons  of  foreign  languages 
to  our  ideals,  we  shall  fail.  If  they  are  incorrigible,  they 
should  seek  another  home  where  they  can  enjoy  their  kind 
of  culture  unmolested  by  Americanism.  If  the  president 
of  the  German  Alliance  and  his  fellow  Germans  are  still  of 
the  same  mind,  they  should  renounce  any  pretended  citizen- 
ship and  retire  from  America.  Then  might  it  be  said,  as  was 
written  of  old,  **They  went  out  from  us,  because  they  were 
not  of  us." 

Potent  Incentives.  If  we  refuse  to  resort  to  coercion, 
there  is  all  the  more  reason  for  making  certain  that  the 
forces  upon  which  we  must  rely  are  well  understood  and 
well  organized  and  that  we  are  prepared  to  meet  our  duty 
and  opportunity  to  the  full.  There  are  incentives  which 
are  sufficiently  potent  and  upon  these  we  must  place  the 
major  emphasis. 

Without  doubt,  foreign  languages  serve  a  valuable  pur- 
pose and  must  be  relied  upon  during  a  period  of  transition 
while  candidates  for  American  citizenship  are  in  course  of 
training.  We  also  must  admit  that  there  are  people  too  old 
now  to  make  the  effort  to  become  proficient  in  English,  and 
as  we  have  been  partly  to  blame  for  past  neglect,  we  must 
be  patient  with  them.  Therefore,  many  of  our  churches 
will  continue  to  have  some  part  of  the  service  or  an  oc- 
casional service  in  the  language  of  the  mother  country  for 
these  older  people.  Even  under  such  circumstances,  much 
will  have  been  gained  when  a  foreign  language  no  longer 


THE  LANGUAGE  QUESTION  65 

receives  a  major  recognition  and  has  dropped  into  a  minor 
place.  It  must  pass  entirely  with  the  passing  of  the  necessity 
which  existed  when  this  older  generation  was  to  be  con- 
sidered. Some  mission  boards  have  decided  to  refuse  grants 
of  aid  to  any  church  which  does  not  introduce  the  English 
language  into  the  service.  No  missionary  should  hereafter 
be  appointed  who  has  not  a  sufficient  command  of  English 
to  minister  to  all  the  community. 

The  pastor  of  a  certain  Swedish  church  has  recently 
introduced  the  use  of  English  and  has  formally  stated  that 
he  considers  it  the  duty  of  his  church  to  minister  to  the  entire 
community  regardless  of  racial  antecedents.  That  church 
has  become  Americanized.  The  failure  to  introduce  Eng- 
lish into  the  services  of  public  worship  among  foreign-lan- 
guage groups  is  due  to  a  drifting  policy  rather  than  to  de- 
liberate intention.  I  heard  "America"  sung  in  Italian  re- 
cently by  a  congregation  to  whom  I  spoke  in  English  without 
an  interpreter.  The  pastor  was  not  antagonistic  to  the  use 
of  English,  nor  were  his  people.  They  simply  had  not  given 
any  thought  to  the  matter.  There  can  be  no  excuse  for 
conducting  Sunday-schools  among  children  of  foreign-speak- 
ing parents  in  anything  but  English,  provided  competent 
teachers  can  be  secured. 

Rights  of  the  Young  People.  The  younger  people 
have  long  resented  the  selfish  domination  of  those  elders  who 
have  been  short-sighted  in  retaining  the  mother  tongue  for 
sentimental  reasons,  and  who  have  insisted  that  their  chil- 
dren submit  to  their  wishes.  The  time  has  come  when  the 
older  people  must  yield  and  be  content  with  an  occasional 
service  or  a  part  of  the  service  in  their  mother  tongue. 


66  CHRISTIAN  AMERICANIZATION 

The  business  incentives  to  learning  English  have  been  well 
set  forth  by  leading  industrial  concerns  which  employ  large 
numbers  of  foreign-born  men  and  women.  It  may  not  be 
fair  to  make  the  use  of  English  absolutely  a  condition  of 
employment,  but  it  is  certainly  logical  and  wholly  just  to 
make  some  knowledge  of  English,  and  further  study  to  per- 
fect the  limited  knowledge,  a  condition  for  advancement. 

The  work  of  the  educational  department  of  the  Y.  M.  C. 
A.  in  military  camps  has  been  productive  of  unmeasured 
good  in  the  matter  of  teaching  English.  A  very  happy  idea 
was  conceived  and  put  into  effective  operation  by  the  Neigh- 
bors' League,  which  is  especially  interested  in  meeting  this 
problem  in  the  home.  It  furnished  the  chaplains  and 
Y.  M.  C.  A.  secretaries  with  mailing  cards  to  be  filled  in 
by  husbands  who  were  in  military  service.  The  card  stated 
that  the  man  was  learning  English  and  urged  his  wife  to  do 
the  same,  in  order  that  together  they  might  take  their  part 
in  the  life  of  America.  The  home  service  department  of 
the  Red  Cross  has  also  been  able  to  use  this  incentive  and 
enlist  practical  assistance  in  teaching  English  to  foreign-born 
women,  mothers  and  wives  of  men  in  service. 

A  new  consciousness  of  being  a  real  part  of  the  nation,  a 
new  knowledge  of  and  pride  in  its  achievements,  have  come 
to  foreign-born  men  in  military  service  as  well  as  in  the 
industrial  service  and  through  the  general  education  which 
was  a  part  of  the  Liberty  Loan  propaganda.  All  these  in- 
centives for  complete  identity  with  America  have  made  it 
easier  to  interest  people  of  the  newer  immigration  in  study- 
ing English  and  have  aroused  the  older  groups,  who  have 
been  at  heart  loyal  to  America,  to  take  aggressive  measures 


THE  LANGUAGE  QUESTION  67 

to  familiarize  themselves  with  the  language  of  the  country. 
Such  natural  reactions,  of  which  we  must  take  full  ad- 
vantage and  which  we  must  be  prepared  to  utilize,  have 
vastly  more  promise  than  any  sort  of  coercion. 

Teaching  English.  This  phase  of  the  subject  is 
worthy  of  an  entire  chapter  and  deserves  fuller  exposition 
as  to  materials  and  methods  than  our  limitations  of  space 
will  permit.  This  service  naturally  concerns  the  newcomers 
and  is  a  constructive  measure  of  the  greatest  importance. 

For  several  years  prior  to  the  war,  intelligent  friends  both 
of  America  and  of  new  Americans  had  been  gravely  con- 
cerned with  the  lack  of  progress  toward  assimilation  on  the 
part  of  the  great  masses  of  the  more  recent  immigration. 
It  was,  of  course,  no  new  idea  to  teach  English  to  foreigners, 
but  such  teaching  had  never  been  popularized,  no  adequate 
provision  was  made  for  it,  no  incentives  were  furnished,  and 
very  little,  if  any,  well-adapted  material  was  provided  for 
teachers  who  were  amateurs  but  who  saw  the  need  and 
were  ready  to  serve. 

The  needed  material  and  the  popularization  of  a  scientific 
and  efficient  method  adaptable  to  the  needs  of  pupils  of  the 
various  degrees  of  intelligence  and  to  the  ability  of  the 
teachers,  have  now  been  created.  The  Y.  M.  C.  A.  has 
developed  and  furnished  charts  and  advanced  material,  so 
that  they  have  been  able  to  cooperate  in  evening  classes  and 
clubs  as  well  as  shop  classes.  Most  of  the  public  night- 
schools  have  clung  to  text-books  slightly  modified  but  not 
so  well  adapted  to  the  use  of  beginners.  Several  books  in 
civics  and  history,  with  biographies  of  great  Americans,  have 
been  published  and  are  well  adapted  to  the  needs  of  more 


68  CHRISTIAN  AMERICANIZATION 

advanced    pupils.      At    least    two    different   adaptations   of 
Biblical  and  religious  material  have  been  published. 

One  of  the  most  important  fields  for  the  extension  of 
this  work  is  the  home,  where  the  teacher  must  go  with  the 
lesson  if  it  is  to  be  given  at  all.  The  practical  difficulties 
which  debar  the  mother  from  attending  a  class  anywhere 
outside  the  walls  of  her  home  have  aroused  resourceful 
women,  and  they  have  now  undertaken  to  provide  lessons 
in  the  homes.  There  is  one  missionary  teacher  in  New 
York  City  w^hose  entire  time,  energy,  and  skill — and  she  has 
a  vast  deal  of  the  latter  two  qualities — are  devoted  to  home 
teaching.  She  has  enlisted  scores  of  socially  minded  friends 
who  have  demonstrated  beyond  any  doubt  the  possibilities 
and  value  of  this  service.  Neighborliness  and  home  service 
have  come  to  be  recognized  as  the  only  possible  means  by 
which  the  teaching  of  English  can  be  extended  to  reach  the 
women  in  the  homes. 


CHAPTER  IV 

ARRESTED  ASSIMILATION 

IN'  the  course  of  this  study  we  have  sought  consistently 
to  get  at  underlying  facts  and  forces  and  not  allow 
ourselves  to  accept  as  final  and  conclusive  the  easy  in- 
terpretations which  lie  upon  the  surface.  There  is  no  ar- 
bitrary scale  by  which  assimilation  may  be  tested  or  upon 
which  progress  can  be  registered.  At  almost  any  gathering 
of  socially  intelligent  people,  an  interesting  and  lively  dis- 
cussion can  be  aroused  upon  the  question:  When  has  a  for- 
eigner ceased  to  be  a  foreigner  and  when  has  he  become  an 
American  ? 

The  trend  of  things  is  always  more  significant  than  their 
status  at  any  chance  moment  of  charting.  The  significance 
of  direction  is  often  overlooked.  In  an  admirable  and  sug- 
gestive statement  of  elemental  forces  which  must  be  reckoned 
with  in  considering  the  matter  of  assimilation,  Professor 
Henry  P.  Fairchild  says,  "Assimilation  is  a  matter  of  the 
force  of  environment  pitted  against  that  of  heredity."^  We 
are  called  upon  to  face  the  fact  that,  in  a  great  many  cases 
and  in  many  localities,  progress  toward  the  goal  is  slow  and 
difficult  and,  in  some  instances,  has  been  wholly  arrested. 
In  other  instances  we  are  able  to  demonstrate  that  encourag- 
ing progress  has  been  and  is  being  made.  If  we  can  ascertain 
what  are  the  causes  that  weaken  the  assimilative  force  of 
environment  and  what  reinforces  the  power  of  heredity,  we 

1  Fairchild,  Immigration,  p.  406. 

69 


70  CHRISTIAN  AMERICANIZATION 

will  have  gone  a  long  way  toward  understanding  and  mea- 
suring the  forces  wnth  which  we  must  reckon. 

Evidence  in  the  Case.  It  is  not  necessary  to  enumerate 
all  the  evidence  which  indicates  that  assimilation  is  being  re- 
tarded and  that  environment  in  many  cases  is  losing  ground 
in  this  contest.  Not  each  count  has  equally  significant  value. 
We  do  not  seek  here  to  bring  an  indictment  against  all  un- 
assimilated  foreign-born  men  and  w^omen  nor  against  every 
institution  which  is  identified  with  immigrant  folks;  we  cite 
some  well-attested  facts,  the  cumulative  force  of  which  fur- 
nishes a  pov/erful  argument  for  a  radical  change  of  policy 
in  our  attitude  toward  the  foreign-born. 

Use  of  Foreign  Language.  The  wide-spread  persist- 
ence in  the  use  of  foreign  languages  as  a  medium  of  social, 
cultural,  and  religious  intercourse,  on  the  part  of  people  who 
are  able  to  use  the  English  language  but  who  eagerly  seize 
every  opportunity  to  use  their  mother  tongue,  is  a  matter 
that  once  received  little  notice.  We  do  not  deny  them  the 
privilege  but  cite  it  as  an  indication  of  the  fact  that  heredity 
is  still  a  dominant  force  to  be  reckoned  with  in  their  lives. 
I  attend  officially  meetings  of  boards  and  committees  repre- 
senting foreign-speaking  groups,  and  I  am  impressed  with  the 
fact  that  they  seem  to  prefer  to  use  a  foreign  language.  They 
use  English  freely  when  discussing  matters  that  I  present; 
but  although  I  am  a  guest,  and  courtesy,  if  nothing  else, 
would  suggest  using  English  in  the  conduct  of  other  business, 
all  of  which  is  supposed  to  be  of  public  interest  and  of  espe- 
cial official  interest  to  me,  they  invariably  lapse  irrto  the 
language  of  their  group.  Most  of  the  men  whom  I  have 
in  mind  were  born  in  this  country. 


ARKESTED  ASSIMILATION  71 


Inability  to  Speak  English.  We  have  considered 
fully  the  wide-spread  inability  on  the  part  of  multitudes, 
many  of  whom  have  been  in  America  for  years,  to  under- 
stand English,  but  it  must  enter  into  the  reckoning  here. 
The  fact  that  over  2,500,000  adults  still  cannot  understand 
our  language  is  certainly  sufficiently  significant  to  cause  us 
serious  anxiety  as  to  the  progress  of  assimilation. 

Foreign  Colonies.  I  do  not  refer  to  the  predominance 
of  a  particular  racial  strain  in  a  given  community,  such  as, 
for  instance,  the  Scandinavians  in  Minnesota.  I  have  in 
mind,  rather,  the  existence  of  well-defined  foreign  colonies; 
for  example,  those  of  the  Bohemians  in  Minnesota,  Iowa, 
and  Nebraska;  of  Russians  in  North  Dakota;  of  Poles  in 
Wisconsin;  of  Germans  in  Texas  and  Nebraska.  In  these 
colonies  the  English  language  is  the  foreign  language,  and 
an  American  is  a  foreigner  in  the  community.  This  isola- 
tion, which  has  persisted  in  some  cases  for  more  than  a  gen- 
eration, constitutes  an  intolerable  situation  and  is  painful 
evidence  that  assimilation  has  made  not  even  a  beginning. 

Racial  Cleavage.  It  is  not  at  all  strange  that  people 
coming  to  a  new  land  should  seek  the  society  of  their  fellow 
countrymen.  But  when  after  years  of  life  here,  the  same 
groupings  and  lines  of  cleavage  are  manifest  in  the  second 
and  third  generation,  one  can  but  wonder  how  deeply 
the  influence  of  the  new  world  has  penetrated.  To  some 
of  us  it  is  conceivable  that  other  considerations  than  former 
nationality  may  occasionally  determine  alignment.  Perhaps 
the  well-known  tendency  of  dissolved  crystals  to  re-crystalize 
in  accordance  with  original  formation  ought  to  warn  us  that 
any  such  complete  assimilation  as  we  dream  of  is  impossible. 


72  CHRISTIAN  AMERICANIZATION 

The  only  answer  to  that  doubt  is  that  the  grouping  along 
old-world  national  and  racial  lines  is  not  manifest  where 
environment  has  had  a  fair  chance.  This  tendency  to  follow 
racial  lines  has  not  yet  been  proved  to  be  as  invariable  as  a 
physical  law;  but  it  is  certainly  apparent  that,  whenever 
these  lines  of  cleavage  persist,  there  is  presumptive  evidence 
that  the  process  of  assimilation  is  not  yet  complete. 

Old  World  Animosities.  To  an  American  it  is  some- 
thing in  the  nature  of  a  never  ending  wonder  that  old-world 
animosities  should  persist  on  American  soil.  The  shop 
fights,  neighborhood  riots,  and  even  church  brawls,  which 
have  frequently  occurred  in  sections  where  racial  stocks  are 
highly  variegated,  are  evidences  of  the  persistence  of  those 
racial  antagonisms  and  antipathies  that  we  find  difficult  to 
understand.  I  have  good  friends  from  Hungary  who,  after 
living  here  for  j'ears,  continue  to  be  true  to  the  Magyar 
type  in  their  attitude  toward  the  Slovaks  and  Rumanians 
and  are  unable  to  see  wherein  these  races  have  anything  to 
complain  of»  One  of  the  most  curious  expressions  of  this 
spirit  is  the  difficulty  which  one  experiences  in  attempting  to 
intermingle  Swedish-speaking  people  from  Finland  with 
Swedish-speaking  people  from  Sweden.  Even  the  Roman 
Church,  with  all  its  autocratic  authority,  has  learned  that 
it  cannot  ignore  the  survival  of  these  racial  antagonisms. 

The  difficulties  in  reconciling  racial  antagonism  experi- 
enced by  the  committee  of  arrangements  for  the  Fourth  of 
July  pageant  in  New  York  City  in  191 8  is  an  illustration 
in  point.  The  pageant  was  planned  as  a  demonstration  of 
loyalty  on  the  part  of  new  Americans.  It  was  naturally  to 
be  assumed  that,  in  the  spirit  of  the  day,  the  old  antagonisms 


ARRESTED  ASSIMILATION  73 

would  be  lost  sight  of;  but  the  extremely  bad  taste  of  one 
group  in  persistently  demanding  the  privilege  of  displaying 
the  flag  of  Its  nation,  allegiance  to  whose  ruler  they  had 
renounced,  was  the  spark  which  set  off  the  magazine.  The 
trouble  was  on.  In  the  end,  the  matter  was  settled  through 
the  tact  of  the  committee,  which  decided  to  eliminate  the 
use  of  all  flags  but  those  of  the  Allies.  Of  course  this  is 
simply  another  proof  that  these  people  have  not  5'et  gotten 
the  old-world  heritage  out  of  their  systems  and  become  full 
partakers  of  the  spirit  of  America. 

Old  World  Authorities.  It  Is  probably  sufficient  to 
state,  without  amplification,  that  for  many  thousands  the 
center  of  authority  In  matters  social  and  religious  as  well 
as  political  is  not  In  America  but  In  the  old  world.  Mr. 
Allan  L.  Benson,  candidate  of  the  Socialist  Party  for  presi- 
dent In  19 1 6,  resigned  from  the  party  on  the  ground  that, 
as  It  had  developed  during  the  war.  It  was  controlled  by  for- 
eign influences  and  w^as  un-American.  Others,  while  not 
renouncing  their  Socialist  convictions  and  principles,  left  the 
party  for  the  same  reason.  This  old-world  authority  Is  one 
of  the  most  significant  evidences  that  American  influences 
are  not  yet  predominant  and  determinative  In  the  lives  of 
many  people  who  have  sought  America  as  a  land  of  freedom. 

Old  World  Habits.  We  do  not  consider  that  there  Is 
anj'thing  objectionable  In  the  continuance  of  many  old-world 
customs.  We  are  fond  of  many  old-world  dishes  and  have 
long  looked  upon  them  as  delicacies.  We  like  the  beautiful 
and  picturesque  costumes,  which,  of  course,  are  not  in  any 
sense  incompatible  with  the  American  spirit.  But  some  of 
our  foreign  residents  retain  habits  of  mind  and  traditional 


74  CHRISTIAN  AMERICANIZATION 

practices  which  are  un-American  and  would  rouse  bitter 
resentment  if  fully  understood.  Treatment  of  women  and 
children  may  serve  as  an  Illustration  of  what  we^mean.  In 
America  we  have  rather  decidedly  objected  to  wife-beating; 
when  native  Americans  indulge  in  such  practises  they  are 
either  ostracized  or  imprisoned.  But  there  are  foreign-born 
men  living  In  America  who  feel  that  an  occasional  beating 
is  rather  helpful  in  keeping  wives  In  proper  subjection. 

I  have  a  test  of  this  un-American  attitude  of  mind  which 
I  apply  occasionally.  In  a  certain  foreign-speaking  church 
the  wife  of  the  pastor  was  holding  her  baby  on  her  lap.  The 
behavior  of  the  baby  annoyed  one  of  the  men  so  much  that 
he  produced  a  strap,  and  while  the  service  was  still  in  ses- 
sion, walked  over  to  the  mother  and  struck  the  baby  with 
the  strap!  Nobody  knocked  him  down  or  even  protested. 
I  have  reported  this  Incident  to  various  men  of  foreign  birth 
In  order  to  observe  their  mental  reaction,  and  I  have  yet  to 
find  one  who  showed  the  slightest  surprise,  unless  It  was 
surprise  at  my  Indignation. 

The  American  respect  for  womanhood,  for  the  privacies 
of  family  life,  and  for  the  refinements  which  are  instinctive 
in  every  decent  American  are  often  wanting  in  many  of  the 
foreign  colonies  in  our  large  cities.  I  call  attention  to  this 
as  evidence  that  American  influences  have  not  penetrated 
deeply  Into  the  lives  of  the  people  of  whom  these  things  are 
still  true.  No  one  will  be  foolish  enough  to  make  sweeping 
generalizations  and  say  that  all  these  characteristics  are 
present  in  all  sections  or  among  all  old-world  races  who  have 
come  to  America.  They  are  cited  as  proof  of  the  fact  that 
the  American  spirit  has  not  yet  leavened  tlie  whole  lump. 


ARRESTED  ASSIMILATION  75 

Accounting  for  the  Facts.  Causes  which  operate 
to  arrest  assimilation  must  be  classified.  We  will  be  unable  to 
apply  the  remedy  unless  we  properly  diagnose  the  disease. 
We  must  distinguish  between  the  causes  which  are  natural 
and  those  which  are  artificial,  between  the  causes  over  which 
we  have  no  control  and  those  which  we  can  control.  We 
must  recognize  causes  which  inhere  in  heredity  and  causes 
which  grow  out  of  environment.  We  use  the  term  ''hered- 
ity" loosely  to  cover  all  the  influences  and  associations  which 
the  immigrant  brings  and  of  which  he  can  hardly  be  ex- 
pected to  divest  himself  consciously  and  deliberately,  as  he 
takes  off  his  foreign  clothes,  as  soon  as  he  sets  foot  on  Anjer- 
ican  soil. 

Motives.  If  men  come  to  America  to  exploit  America 
even  on  a  modest  scale,  they  are  not  likely  to  take  any  great 
pains  to  throw  o£f  what  has  always  been  natural  to  them  and 
eagerly  seek  a  new  culture.  If  they  have  become  discontent- 
ed in  their  old  homes  and  have  some  intelligent  conception 
of  what  America  means,  they  will,  naturally,  absorb  Amer- 
ican ideas  more  readily. 

Not  all  immigrants  come  deliberately,  as  the  early  settlers 
came,  to  make  a  new  home  and,  figuratively,  burn  their  ships 
on  the  shore  behind  them  when  they  have  landed.  The 
immigrant  of  recent  years,  at  least,  has  come  on  a  voyage  of 
exploration  to  discover  America,  and  expects  to  go  back  to 
his  native  land.  If  all  is  well,  he  may  return  with  his  family 
or  send  for  them.  These  ''birds  of  passage"  have  numbered 
hundreds  of  thousands;  to  them  America  means  a  "job"  first 
of  all  and  not  a  new  life.  Some  who  have  lived  here  for 
many  years  think  of  themselves  as  exiles.     In  his  searching 


76  CHRISTIAN  AMERICANIZATION 

article,  "A  Family  Letter"  in  The  Atlantic  Monthly  for 
December,  191 7,  Rudolph  Heinrichs  has  painted  a  vivid 
word-picture  of  the  life  of  self-expatriated  Germans  who 
glory  in  their  exile  and  whose  hearts  have  never  been  trans- 
ferred to  America.  There  is,  however,  great  cheer  and 
promise  in  the  attitude  of  others  who  are  represented  by  a 
young  German  conscript  in  Toledo.  A  friend  of  mine,  a 
lawyer  who  was  serving  on  a  draft  board,  had  occasion  to 
help  the  young  man  fill  out  his  questionnaire.  He  explained 
that,  as  an  alien,  he  was  entitled  to  claim  exemption.  The 
young  man  straightened  himself  and  with  a  high  look  re- 
plied, ''When  I  came  to  America,  /  came  all.  If  America 
wants  Karl  Klausen,  Karl  Klausen  is  ready!" 

Natural  Inertia,  It  requires  an  efiEort  to  discover 
America  and  become  an  American.  It  is  far  easier  to  drift 
with  the  familiar  faces,  speech,  and  associations;  only  the 
ambitious  and  enterprising  attend  night-schools.  I  think  of 
the  early  struggles  and  sacrifices  of  a  prosperous  business  man 
whose  life-story  I  know  well.  He  left  Germany  and  ran 
away  to  America,  to  be  rid  of  a  step-mother.  He  first 
found  work  in  a  truck  garden,  but  that  did  not  offer  suffi- 
cient advancement  for  his  ambition;  so  he  sought  employ- 
ment on  the  ore  docks  in  Cleveland.  It  was  hard  work,  the 
hardest  kind  of  work,  but  he  found  he  could  make  more 
money  by  overtime;  so  he  used  his  virile  strength  without 
stint  on  those  ore  piles.  Then  he  found  out  about  night- 
schools  and  gave  up  working  overtime  to  become  a  pupil. 
He  kept  on  until  he  had  a  fair  business  education.  He  had 
saved  his  wages,  and  hearing  of  a  good  bargain,  bought  an 
apartment-house.     With   this  first  venture,  he  entered  the 


ARRESTED   ASSIMILATION  77 

real  estate  business.  Later  he  married  an  American  girl, 
the  daughter  of  his  employer.  Early  in  his  career  he  had 
begun  to  attend  an  English-speaking  church,  and  now  he  is 
one  of  the  influential  office-holders  in  that  large  city  church. 
He  is  as  Americanized  as  one  could  desire;  and  he  is  not  a 
rare  exception.  I  mention  him  only  because  he  illustrates 
the  struggle  required  to  overcome  the  natural  inertia  which 
is  one  of  the  deadliest  enemies  of  assimilation. 

Capacity.  As  a  theory,  we  may  hold  that  all  men  are 
capable  of  education ;  yet  we  all  know  that  there  are  decided 
differences  in  their  capacity. 

When  we  are  considering  the  matter  of  assimilation,  we 
must  recognize  that  many  factors  enteV  into  it.  For  ex- 
ample, there  is  the  simple  demerit  of  age>  Youth  quickly 
adjusts  itself.  I  have  seen  young  boys  hardly  a  year  resident 
in  America  throw  their  chests  out  and  boast  that  they  were 
Americans.  We  have  all  heard  of  the  boy  of  foreign -born, 
parentage  who  complained  of  parental  chastisement  on  the 
ground  that  he  objected  to  being  whipped  by  a  foreigner! 

Native  capacity,  early  training,  the  previous  conditions 
and  customs  under  which  men  have  lived,  must  all  be  taken 
into  consideration.  I  have  examined  applicants  for  admis- 
sion to  a  school  for  immigrants  from  Russia  Though 
several  had  but  meager  school  advantages,  it  became  ap- 
parent that  native  capacity  was  the  determining  factor  in 
their  progress.  One  applicant  stated  pathetically  that  he 
had  no  education — he  was  a  mature  man — ^but  he  said  he 
knew  that  animals  could  be  trained  and  he  thought  perhaps 
we  might  help  him.  It  was  very  difficult  for  him  to  learn. 
anything,  and  he  finally  left  the  school. 


78  CHRISTIAN  AMERICANIZATION 

Literacy  has  been  made  a  test  of  admittance  to  America, 
but  both  President  Taft  and  President  Wilson  vetoed  the 
proposed  measure.  Finally  it  was  passed  over  President 
Wilson's  veto,  but  it  was  well  understood  to  be  an  arbitrary 
and  artificial  barrier  to  cut  down  the  volume  of  immigration. 
We  must  have  wondered  sometimes  during  the  past  four 
years  if  the  ability  to  read  and  write  v/as  a  fair  test.  Some 
very  brilliant  men  and  women  of  foreign  birth  have  proved 
rather  dangerous  and  with  all  their  native  capacity  seem  not 
to  have  assimilated  the  American  spirit  to  any  marked 
degree.  But  of  course,  other  things  being  equal,  younger 
men  of  initiative  and  capacity  are  "better  risks"  from  the 
Americanization  point  of  view. 

Another  question  of  great  importance  is  that  of  racial 
capacity.  Are  all  races  capable  of  being  assimilated  into  the 
life  of  America?  Some  Orientals  have  been  debarred  from 
citizenship  and  many  from  admission  to  the  country  on  the 
ground  that  they  are  incapable  of  being  assimilated.  Teutonic 
peoples  are  supposed  to  be  more  naturally  akin  to  Americans, 
and  yet  we  have  been  at  war  with  a  leading  Teutonic  power 
that  represented  the  antipodes  of  American  ideals. 

No  adequate  data  have  ever  been  assembled  and  analyzed 
upon  which  to  base  a  scientific  judgment  as  to  this  matter  of 
racial  capacity.  Speaking  in  general  terms,  the  capacity  or 
incapacity  for  assimilation  is  an  individual,  rather  than  a 
racial  matter.  There  is  no  reason  why  Mazzini  or  Gari- 
baldi would  not  have  made  Americans  of  distinction.  Petofi 
and  Kossuth,  of  Hungary,  and  Kosciusko  and  Pulaski,  of 
Poland  would  have  been  given  carte  blanche  in  America. 
There  are  Japanese  and  Chinese  scholars,  gentlemen,  states- 


ARRESTED  ASSIMILATION  79 

men,  Christian  students  who  have  won  many  honors  in 
American  university  life;  these  would  not  be  "bad  hazards'* 
as  citizens. 

Conservatism.  It  is  unnecessary  to  enlarge  upon  this 
element  in  human  nature.  All  of  us  habitually  regard  our 
habits  and  customs  as  superior  to  those  of  other  peoples.  It 
is  utter  folly  for  us  to  think  that  immigrant  peoples  coming 
to  America  are  overwhelmed  by  its  splendor  and  magnifi- 
cence and  are  eager  to  abandon  lifelong  habits  and  manners 
for  American  ways.  In  superficial  matters,  such  as  dress, 
they  readily  adjust  themselves  to  their  new  surroundings, 
but  one  has  only  to  become  intimately  acquainted  with  im- 
migrants to  learn  the  secret  scorn  with  which  they  regard 
some  of  our  manners,  our  tastes,  our  lack  of  reverence,  our 
hurry  and  bustle,  our  methods  of  production,  and  the  work- 
manship which  characterizes  much  American  production. 

The  women,  who  remain  at  home  out  of  touch  with  Amer- 
icanizing influences,  are  naturally  the  least  affected  by  Amer- 
ican influences  and  are  by  virtue  of  their  sex  and  tempera- 
ment more  conservative  than  the  men.  The  strongest  citadel 
of  conservatism,  therefore,  is  the  least  exposed  to  the  only  in- 
fluences which  can  capture  it. 

The  Old  Folks  at  Home.  It  has  been  brought  out 
in  many  conferences  that  a  very  human  and  wholly  worthy 
interest  in  the  fortunes  of  the  homeland  may  be  a  barrier  to 
complete  assimilation. 

I  remember  a  fine  young  pastor  who  came  from  Bohemia 
and  has  been  naturalized.  When  I  remonstrated  with  him 
for  calling  himself  a  Bohemian  after  he  had  become  an 
American  citizen,  and  a  thoroughly  sincere  one  too,  he  re- 


80  CHRISTIAN  AMERICANIZATION 

plied  that  he  was  deeply  interested  in  the  cause  of  freedom 
in  Bohemia.  I  assured  him  that  I,  also,  was  deeply  in- 
terested in  that  cause  and  had  been  for  ye^rs.  I  tried  to 
make  it  clear  that  a  true  conception  of  Americanization  did 
not  exclude  the  most  ardent  devotion  to  the  cause  of  free- 
dom anywhere.  Some  things  are  incompatible  with  the 
American  spirit.  One  cannot  be  a  true  American  and  at 
the  same  time  a  good  Junker  or  Turk.  But  one  may  love 
the  land  of  his  birth  and  desire  its  prosperity  without  com- 
promising his  Americanism.  Nevertheless,  the  family  ties 
and  the  heart  ties  which  bind  millions  to  the  old  world  oper- 
ate to  hold  them  back  from  complete  identification  with  the 
fortunes  of  America. 

Self  Interest.  It  is  natural  to  take  advantage  of  the 
impulses  of  human  nature.  Therefore,  many  immigrant 
people  have  shrewdly  capitalized  the  well-known  sentiments 
and  impulses  of  other  immigrant  people  and  have  profited  by 
them  immensely.  Very  naturally,  they  do  not  like  to  lose 
special  benefits  accruing  from  this  separatist  sentiment. 

As  a  matter  of  course  the  foreign-language  press  depends 
for  its  patronage  upon  the  people  of  foreign  speech  who  wish 
to  keep  alive  the  associations  of  the  homeland  from  which 
they  have  come.  The  very  existence  of  these  periodicals  hangs 
on  the  perpetuation  of  these  sentiments.  We  have  readily 
acknowledged  that,  as  a  temporary  expedient  during  the 
period  of  transition,  foreign-language  papers  serve  a  worthy 
purpose ;  but  it  is  almost  more  than  can  be  expected  of  human 
nature  that  the  editors  should  urge  their  readers  to  learn 
English  quickly  and  to  put  down  deep  roots  into  the  soil 
of  America. 


ARRESTED  ASSIMILATION  81 

The  same  thing  Is  true  of  foreign-speaking  business  con- 
cerns, from  the  little  shopkeeper  to  the  banks,  Insurance 
companies,  and  other  large  interests.  They,  too,  have  cap- 
italized the  sentiment  of  loyalty  to  language  and  former 
nationality.  They  would,  many  of  them,  go  Into  bankruptcy, 
if  they  lost  this  patronage. 

Foreign-language  churches  are,  perhaps,  the  most  potent 
agency  for  conserving  the  foreign  heritage.  It  is  well  es- 
tablished that  the  older  clergy  have  most  tenaciously  upheld 
foreign  traditions  and  maintained  the  position  that  all  was 
lost,  if  their  followers  or  their  followers'  children  forsook 
the  foreign-language  church.  Representatives  of  these 
churches  are  often  considered  renegades  because  they  have 
united  with  English-speaking  and  purely  American  churches. 
The  younger  ministry  is  less  conservative,  but  has  been 
dominated  by  older  members,  who  often  hold  the  purse- 
strings  and  control  the  policy.  It  Is  true  that  some  of  our 
most  influential  ministers  in  American  churches  were  reared 
in  foreign-speaking  homes  and  have  identified  themselves 
fully  with  American  interests,  but  the  future  influence  and 
support  of  many  foreign-speaking  ministers  depends  upon 
the  conservation  of  foreign  sentiments  and  language.  It 
may  be  startling  to  some  Americans  to  know  that  religious 
organizations  have  been  financed  largely  by  foreign  money 
and  have  in  this  way  been  held  rather  firmly  to  the  old 
country.  These  organizations  probably  do  not  realize  that 
this  money  has  any  power  over  them,  but  they  would  be  al- 
most more  than  human  if  they  were  uninfluenced  by  it. 

Deliberate  Resistance.  At  first  thought,  it  may  seem 
purely  arbitrary  and  wholly  meaningless  to  distinguish  be- 


82  CHRISTIAN  AMERICANIZATION 

tween  two  kinds  of  resistance  to  assimilation.  The  effect 
is  apparently  the  same,  no  matter  what  may  be  the  motive 
or  the  method.  Nevertheless,  it  seems  important  that  we 
make  that  distinction  and  reserve  our  decision  as  to  the  ques- 
tion of  dealing  with  both  in  precisely  the  same  way  or  in 
totally  different  ways. 

There  is  a  systematic  and  persistent  resistance  to  assimila- 
tion which  is  effective  but  which  is  not  highly  organized  and 
does  not  breed  antagonism  to  America.  There  is  another 
systematic  and  persistent  resistance  to  assimilation  which  is 
highly  organized,  efficient,  amply  financed,  assisted,  and 
directed,  deliberate,  intentional,  and  wholly  sinister.  The 
practical  effect  of  these  two  forces  may  not  be  essentially 
different,  but  the  motives  and  morality  are  radically  different. 
For  this  reason  we  need  to  distinguish  between  them.  The 
first  force  we  may  designate  as  sentimental  resistance  to  as- 
similation. The  other  is  well  known  as  an  organized  propa- 
ganda of  resistance.. 

We  have  called  attention  repeatedly  to  various  expressions 
and  manifestations  of  the  sentimental  impulse  to  cling  tena- 
ciously to  everything  which  is  associated  with  the  old  coun- 
try. In  many,  if  not  in  most  instances,  the  old-world  cus- 
toms are  not  cherished  with  the  conscious  and  deliberate 
intent  to  defeat  or  resist  the  normal  processes  and  forces  of 
assimilation;  but  the  effect  is  the  same,  no  matter  what  the 
intent  may  be.  We  have  been  tolerant  and  rather  indiffer- 
ent to  the  significance  of  this  tendency  on  the  part  of  the 
foreign-born  who  attend  only  the  gatherings  where  their 
native  language  is  spoken,  join  only  the  societies  made  up  of 
their  own  countrymen,  and  mingle  only  with  the  people  of 


ARRESTED  ASSIMILATION  8^ 

their  own  racial  groups.  There  is  more  than  conservatism 
and  more  than  inertia  in  such  conduct.  We  must  face  these 
facts  kindly  but  firmly  and  be  willing  to  speak  and  hear  the 
truth. 

One  of  the  most  illuminating  articles  in  all  the  literature 
on  this  subject  produced  by  the  war  is  "A  Family  Letter,"^ 
to  which  we  have  referred  before.  It  is  a  letter  from  one 
brother  to  another  regarding  the  matter  of  active  loyalty  to 
America  and  her  interests.  We  mention  it  and  quote  the 
following  passage  from  it  because  of  the  picture  of  family 
life  which  represents  sentimental  resistance  to  assimilation. 
The  family  happens  to  have  been  German,  but  it  might  have 
been  Swedish,  or,  for  that  matter,  of  any  other  race  which 
is  marked  by  clannishness  and  which  manifests  this  separatist 
spirit. 

"All  aliens  tend  to  be  clannish,  and  the  Germans  in  this 
country  have  kept  more  to  themselves,  possibly,  than  the 
nationals  of  any  other  European  country.  You  know  how 
it  was  in  our  own  family.  All  father's  and  mother's  friends 
were  German  except  the  B — s,  and  our  intimacy  with  the 
B — s  was  due  primarily  to  the  accident  that  they  happened 
to  be  our  next-door  neighbors.  You  remember  that,  after 
we  moved  away,  we  saw  little  of  them,  except  on  that  an- 
nual occasion,  Christmas  Eve,  when  they  alwaj^s  came,  load- 
ed to  the  gunwales  with  presents,  to  celebrate  with  us,  Ger- 
man-fashion. Your  friends  at  first  (and  mine  also  as  a  boy) 
were  largely  in  the  German  set,  though  you  and  I,  like  the 
rest  of  the  children,  had  been  born  in  this  country;  and  all 
the  men  who  called  on  the  girls  were  German.  You  re- 
member, we  spoke  of  it  at  the  time,  fifteen  years  or  more  ago. 

1  The  Atlantic  Monthly,  December,   1917. 


g4  CHRISTIAN  AMERICANIZATION 

The  girls  did  not  seem  to  care  for  American  men,  and 
American  men  did  not  seem  to  be  drawn  to  them,  though 
they  were  unquestionably  attractive .  .  .  Counts  and  barons 
besieged  them,  but  Americans  somehow  kept  away  or  were 
gently  pushed  away — I  never  could  quite  decide  which.  And 
the  girls  were  all  four  of  them  born  in  America -and  had 
all  attended  American  schools. 

"The  trouble,  I  suppose,  was  that  the  atmosphere  of  our 
household  was  absolutely  German,  and  American  boys  felt 
shy  in  it,  out  of  their  element,  embarrassed  to  know  exactly 
how  to  act.  Father,  in  insisting  on  keeping  our  home  as 
German  as  possible,  was,  we  know,  acting  from  the  highest 
sense  of  loyalty  to  his  German  origin.  .  . He  became  an  Amer- 
ican citizen  and  a  most  conscientious  supporter  of  good  gov- 
ernment in  his  city  as  well  as  his  nation. 

"We  had  a  wonderful  home,  and  there  are  a  thousand 
memories  of  things  distinctively  German  which  I  cling  to 
gratefully.  I  need  not  tell  you  that.  The  memory  of  those 
Christmas  Eves  is  something  always  to  treasure,  and  there 
w^ere  countless  Sunday  parties,  including  always  the  whole 
family  and  troops  of  friends,  parties  lasting  from  one  to  ten 
(when  father  wound  up  the  clock),  with  Volkslieder,  games, 
and  good,  lively  talk,  that  neither  you  nor  I  will  ever  forget 
or  ever  want  to  forget.  Our  home  was  the  best  sort  of  home 
a  boy  could  have,  but  the  insistence  morning,  noon,  and  night 
that  it  be  above  all  a  German  home,  has,  so  far  as  our 
family  life  is  concerned,  had  tragic  results.  After  mother's 
death,  father  and  the  girls  returned  to  Germany  to  live. 
One  of  the  girls  married  a  German  officer,  another  a  Ger- 
man civil  administrator,  a  third  a  German  professor.  Carl, 


ARRESTED  ASSIMILATION  85 

of  course,  was  altogether  German  an>^vay.  His  school-days 
in  Germany  definitely  settled  that.  You,  having  had  a  part 
of  the  same  training,  naturally  tended  toward  the  German 
point  of  view.  I,  coming  at  the  tail  end  of  the  family  and 
going  to  American  schools,  and  particularly  to  an  Amer- 
ican boarding-school,  became  somehow  Americanized.  I 
don't  know  exactly  how  it  happened,  but  the  fact  remains; 
I  went  to  Germany  as  often  as  the  rest  of  the  family,  but 
I  never  made  any  friends  there.  German  boys  and  Amer- 
ican boys,  I  found,  looked  at  almost  everything  under  the 
sun  from  different  angles,  and  my  angle  happened  to  be  the 
American  angle .  . . 

"It  was  not  the  German  government  that  was  responsible 
for  this  particular  wreck.  It  was  mainly  clannishness  and 
sentimentality — clannishness,  which  prevented  us  as  a  fam- 
ily from  striking  our  roots  out  into  true  American  soil,  hav- 
ing:  Americans  as  our  daily  companions  and  the  guests  of  our 
Sunday  parties,  instead  of  always  German  bankers  and  mer- 
chants and  reserve  officers  and  traveling  noblemen;  senti- 
mentality, which  loved  to  insist  that  we  were  good  Germans 
after  all,  and  which  prevented  father  from  ever  buying  an 
inch  of  American  land,  because  he  wanted  at  any  and  every 
time  to  feel  foot-free  to  return  to  Germany.  Clannishness 
and  sentimentality — the  futile  looking  backward  to  a  happy 
state  which  never  was — are  prominent  characteristics  of  the 
German." 

A  pastor  of  a  German  church  in  a  western  state  was  con- 
victed of  sedition.  In  sentencing  him,  Judge  Charles  F. 
Amidon  uttered  sentiments,  so  true  and  so  forcefully  ex- 
pressed that  they  should  be  widely  read: 


86  CHRISTIAN  AMERICANIZATION 

"You  received  your  final  papers  as  a  citizen  in  1898.  By 
the  oath  which  you  then  took,  you  renounced  and  adjured 
all  allegiance  to  Germany  and  to  the  emperor  of  Germany 
and  swore  that  you  would  bear  true  faith  and  allegiance  to 
the  United  States.  What  did  you  mean?  That  you  w^ould 
set  about  earnestly  growing  an  American  soul  and  put  away 
your  German  soul.  That  is  what  your  oath  of  allegiance 
meant.  Have  you  done  that?  I  do  not  think  you  have. 
You  have  cherished  ever>'thing  German,  prayed  German, 
read  German,  sung  German.  Every  thought  of  your  mind 
and  every  emotion  of  your  heart  through  all  these  years  has 
been  German.  .  .There  have  been  a  good  many  Germans 
before  me  in  the  last  month... They  have  lived  in  the 
country,  like  yourself,  ten,  twenty,  thirty,  forty  years;  and 
they  had  to  give  their  evidence  through  an  interpreter.  .  .It 
[the  oath  of  allegiance]  means  that  you  will  begin  to  sing 
'American  songs;  that  you  will  begin  earnestly  to  study 
American  history;  that  you  will  begin  to  open  your  lives 
through  every  avenue  to  the  influence  of  American  life.  .  . 
If  half  the  effort  had  been  put  forth  in  these  foreign  com- 
munities to  build  up  American  life  in  the  hearts  of  these 
foreign-born  citizens  that  has  been  put  forth  to  perpetuate 
a  foreign  life,  our  situation  would  have  been  entirely  dif- 
ferent from  what  it  is  to-day. .  .You  have  cherished  foreign 
ideals  and  tried  to  make  them  everlasting.  That  is  the  basic 
wrong  of  these  thousands  of  little>  islands  of  foreigners,  that 
instead  of  trying  to  rfimove  the  foreign  life  out  of  their  souls 
and  to  build  up  an  American  life  in  them,  they  have  striven 
studiously  from  year  to  year  to  stifle  American  life  and  to 
make  foreignness  perpetual."^ 

1  The  Outlook,   September    18,    1918,   "A  Judicial  Definition  of 
Allegiance." 


ARRESTED  ASSIMILATION  87 

That  some  of  the  responsibility  for  this  condition  of  affairs 
rests  with  the  older  American  stock  we  will  admit ;  but  that 
does  not  relieve  these  groups  from  responsibility  for  a  senti- 
mental resistance  to  assimilation  which  is  in  effect  a  violation 
of  the  oath  of  allegiance  and  is  essentially  disloyal. 

Organized  Resistance.  The  highly  organized  propa- 
ganda which  has  taken  advantage  of  this  sentimental  resist- 
ance to  assimilation  has  become  so  familiar  that  we  hardly 
need  to  do  more  than  include  it  in  a  list  of  forces  with  which 
to  reckon.  It  would  be  strange  if  it  should  disappear  al- 
together as  a  factor  in  our  national  life.  We  need  to  get 
at  the  underlying  spirit  of  this  propaganda  if  we  are  to  meet 
its  challenge. 

Quoting  again  from  "A  Family  Letter"  (which  is  inside 
testimony)  :  "The  Great  War  has  brought  home  to  us,  with 
startling  shock,  the  realization  that,  unknown  to  the  great 
majority  of  the  American  people,  a  foreign  government  has 
for  the  past  fifteen  or  twenty  years  been  slowly  constructing 
machinery  to  counteract  the  assimilative  potencies  of  this 
American  spirit.  Through  the  schools,  through  the  churches, 
through  the  colleges  and  universities,  through  associations 
of  school-teachers,  through  athletic,  social,  and  literary  clubs, 
organized  and  closely  bound  together  into  a  highly  central- 
ized alliance;  and  lastly,  and  most  effectively,  through  the 
daily  and  weekly  papers,  religious  as  well  as  secular,  this 
government  has  been  endeavoring  to  consolidate  the  largest 
and  on  the  whole  the  most  respected  and  most  trusted  por- 
tion of  our  population  of  foreign  birth  or  immediate  foreign 
origin,  into  a  solid  mass,  organized,  not  only  to  prevent  its 
own  assimilati')n  but  also  to  work  actively  toward  its  own 


88  CHRISTIAN  AMERICANIZATION 

political  dominance,  first  In  the  state  and  later  in  the  na- 
tion.    I  refer,  I  need  not  say,  to  Germany." 

Gustavus  Ohlinger  tells  us  that,  according  to  its  own  offi- 
cial statement,  some  of  the  principal  objects  of  the  National 
German-American  Alliance  were  "to  strengthen  the  sense 
of  unity  among  the  people  of  German  origin  in  America;  to 
check  nativistic  encroachments  [whatever  that  may  mean] 
to  augment  the  Influence  of  German  culture  by  encouraging 
the  use  of  the  German  language  and  making  its  teaching  in 
the  public  schools  compulsorj- ;  to  liberalize  our  naturaliza- 
tion laws  by  removing  knowledge  of  the  English  language 
and  other  educational  tests  as  requirements  of  citizenship; 
and  finally,  to  combat  Puritan  influences,  particularly  inva- 
sions of  personal  liberty  in  the  form  of  restriction  of  the 
liquor  traffic."^  The  President  of  the  Alliance,  speaking 
in  191 1,  called  upon  its  members  to  assert  themselves.  He 
said,  "Let  us,  therefore,  with  united  energies  and  with  every 
available  means,  battle  for  the  preservation  of  our  racial 
character  and  of  Its  intellectual  achievements."^  Before  ten 
thousand  Germans  In  Milwaukee,  he  declared,  "We  have 
long  suffered  the  preachment  that  'you  Germans  must  allow 
yourselves  to  be  assimilated;  you  must  merge  in  the  Amer- 
ican people ;'  but  no  one  will  ever  find  us  prepared  to  descend 
to  an  inferior  culture."^ 

The  National  German-American  Alliance  and  the  Sons  of 
Herman  have  not  been  alone  in  this  organized  opposition  to 
assimilation.  They  have  formed  a  political  alliance  with 
the  Irish  which  has  borne  abundant  fruit  during  recent 
months.  Several  years  ago,  before  the  war,  the  Alliance 
pointed  proudly  to  the  fact  that  citizens  of  Italian  origin 

1  Ohlinger,  Their  Faith  and  Allegiance,  p.  37. 

2  Ibid,  p.  58. 
S  Ibid,  p.  xi. 


ARRESTED   ASSIMILATION  89 

had  formed  a  national  organization  taking  as  its  model  the 
German  Alliance.  The  activities  of  other  racial  organiza- 
tions differ  from  the  National  German-American  Alliance 
in  method  and  efficiency,  and  in  an  absence  of  the  peculiar 
spirit  of  bitterness  toward  America.  But  their  one  test  of 
success  is  their  ability  to  preserve  undiminished  and  to 
perpetuate  race  solidarity  and  race  separateness. 

Judge  Amidon,  whose  speech  in  convicting  a  German  pas- 
tor we  have  quoted  above,  said,  as  he  concluded  his  charge, 
"It  [freedom  of  the  press]  won't  protect  any  press  or  any 
church  which,  while  it  is  trying  to  meet  a  temporary  need, 
does  not  set  itself  earnestly  about  the  business  of  making  that 
temporary  situation  just  as  temporary  as  possible,  and  not 
making  it,  as  has  been  true  in  the  past,  just  as  nearly  per- 
petual as  possible."  It  is  this  distinction,  between  the  tem- 
porary and  the  permanent  which  we  must  keep  before  us. 
The  test  of  a  policy  lies  in  its  trend  and  tendency.  Sincere 
Americans  of  foreign  antecedents  will  not  aid  or  abet  this 
propaganda,  which  has  now  been  exposed  in  all  its  sinister 
character,  by  silence  or  by  continuing  to  practise  the  princi- 
ples which  this  movement  has  promulgated. 

Environment  and  Assimilation.  Recalling  Professor 
Fairchild's  statement,  "Assimilation  is  a  matter  of  the  force 
of  environment,  pitted  against  that  of  the  force  of  heredity," 
let  us  consider  the  causes  growing  out  of  environment  which 
retard,  instead  of  assist,  assimilation. 

When  we  realize  that  our  only  hope  is  in  environment,  it 
is  truly  alarming  to  be  confronted  at  once  by  the  fact  that 
environment  has  not  always  been  a  trusty  ally  of  assimilation 


90  CHRISTIAN  AMERICANIZATION 

but  has  often  either  been  neutralized  or  has  turned  traitor. 
We  have  placed  the  responsibility  for  systematic  and  deliber- 
ate resistance  to  assimilation  where  It  belongs,  that  is,  large- 
ly upon  the  foreign-speaking  people  themselves;  but  re- 
sponsibility for  environment  rests  almost  entirely  upon  Amer- 
ica. Professor  Fairchild  puts  a  finger  on  the  weak  spot  when 
he  saj's:  "Our  knowledge  of  how  to  produce  satisfactory 
social  relations  Is  far  behind  our  knowledge  of  how  to  pro- 
duce wealth."^  This  failure  to  surround  newcomers  with 
an  environment  which  is  one  hundred  per  cent.  efHcIent  for 
assimilation  does  not  make  pleasant  reading  for  Americans 
who  have  been  aroused  to  the  real  dangers  of  an  un-Amer- 
ican element  in  our  national  life.  But  we  can  correct  our 
mistakes  and  change  our  policy  only  when  w^e  understand  the 
situation  which  exists  and  while  humbly  confessing  our  sins, 
are  willing  to  accept  our  full  share  of  blame. 

To  quote  once  more  from  Judge  Amidon,  "I  blame  my- 
self; I  blame  my  country.  We  urged  you  to  come.  We 
welcomed  you ;  we  gave  you  opportunity ;  we  gave  you  land ; 
we  conferred  upon  you  the  diadem  of  American  citizenship 
— and  then  we  left  you.  We  paid  no  attention  to  what  you 
have  been  doing." 

National  Policy.  The  major  emphasis  of  the  govern- 
ment's activity  as  touching  the  Immigrant  has  been  restrictive. 
It  has  been  concerned  with  the  exclusion  or  deportation  of 
undesirables,  which  form  a  mere  fraction  of  the  Immigrant 
population.  Conditions  at  ports  of  entry  have  been  greatly 
Improved  in  recent  years,  and  safeguards  have  been  thrown 
about  the  newcomers  at  the  landing  stage;  but  we  have  yet 
to  inaugurate  a  large,  wise,  and  well-conceived  policy  which 

1  Fairchild,  Immigration,  p.  433. 


ARRESTED   ASSIMILATION  91 

meets  the  exigencies  of  the  case.  When  one  considers  the 
tremendous  significance  of  the  Issues  which  are  involved  in 
the  right  adjustment  of  these  newcomers  to  their  environ- 
ment and  the  importance  of  surrounding  them,  not  simply 
w^ith  safeguards  but  with  an  atmosphere  which  will  be  con- 
ducive to  assimilation,  we  find  It  difficult  to  understand  the 
failure  of  the  national  and  the  state  governments  alike  to 
appreciate  the  importance  of  this  matter. 

First  impressions  are  often  ineradicable.  If  they  are  un- 
favorable, they  are  always  difficult  to  overcome.  The  im- 
migrant has  come  with  every  preconception  In  our  favor. 
He  brings  an  enthusiasm  and  a  naivete  which  is  amazing 
and  beautiful.  When  we  realize  how  this  precious  spiritual 
v/ealth  Is  dissipated,  we  are  filled  with  wonder  that  Amer- 
ica Is  ever  able  to  regain  the  faith  which  she  has  forfeited. 
We  have  trusted  to  chance  and  to  commercial  agencies, 
which  have  every  temptation  to  serve  their  own  ends  rather 
than  the  interests  of  these  new  Americans  or  the  welfare  of 
the  nation.  The  only  real  assistance  has  been  provided  by 
private  cooperation  and  by  a  few  semi-official  agencies  for 
which  a  mere  pittance  of  financial  aid  has  been  grudgingly 
provided  by  municipal  authorities. 

Much  has  been  written  and  uttered  regarding  the  trans- 
portation of  the  Immigrant,  the  unorganized  and  undirected 
flow  of  employment,  the  maladjustment  between  supply  and 
demand,  the  congestion  of  cities,  and  the  dearth  of  seasonable 
labor.  These  are  problems  which  lie  deeper  than  the  sur- 
face and  require  consummate  wisdom  for  their  solution.  But 
the  chief  point  is  that.  If  ever  an  Immigrant  needs  a  friend 
and  if  ever  a  friend  could  make  his  service  yield  a  thou- 


92  CHRISTIAN  AMERICANIZATION 

sand-fold  return,  it  Is  during  the  early  days  of  the  immi- 
grant's induction  into  American  life.  To  guide  these  eager 
newcomers  into  classes  in  English,  to  give  them  wise  counsel 
and  friendly  advice  as  to  the  perils  to  avoid  and  the  oppor- 
tunities and  privileges  offered,  the  prizes  to  be  won,  and  the 
higher  values  which  are  to  be  gained  in  America;  these  are 
the  services  which  need  to  be  rendered,  and  they  are  so  emi- 
nently practical,  that  we  wonder  what  blindness  has  shut  our 
eyes  to  their  vital  importance.  The  failure  to  do  these 
things  has  often  turned  eagerness  and  enthusiasm,  simple 
faith  and  confiding  trust,  into  suspicion,  distrust,  hatred,  and 
the  bitterness  of  gall. 

Un-American  America.  Socially  minded  Americans 
repudiate  unwholesome  social  conditions  as  being  out  of 
keeping  with  what,  we  like  to  think,  is  typical  of  America. 
The  vast  majority  of  Americans  do  not  know  what  these 
conditions  are.  They  exist  here;  they  are  characteristic  of 
many  sections  of  America;  they  represent  about  all  that 
many  hundreds  of  thousands  of  the  foreign-born  know  of 
this  country.  Their  America  is  crowded,  unsanitary,  often 
industrially  cruel  and  dangerous,  socially  unfriendly,  and 
very  unjust.  We  say,  and  rightly,  that  such  conditions  are  un- 
lAmerican.  They  would  be  changed  if  the  great  body  of 
Americans  knew  them  as  some  of  us  do.  The  living  condi- 
tions demanded  by  American  standards  are  not  lu^^urious. 
They  include  such  elemental  necessities  of  life  as  privacy, 
sanitation,  and  sufficient  air  and  sunlight,  as  have  been  de- 
monstrated to  be  essential  to  decency  and  health.  To  these 
simple  requirements  are  added  wholesome  surroundings,  phy- 
sical and  moral.    If  these  very  simple  tests  are  applied,  it  is 


ARRESTED  ASSIMILATION  93 

immediately  evident  that  there  are  literally  millions  in  the 
United  States  who  do  not  enjoy  them. 

The  picture  drawn  for  us  in  that  vivid  story,  "The  Wop 
in  the  Track  Gang,"^  rather  than  being  exceptional,  is 
characteristic  of  the  living  conditions  in  many  public  works. 
There  are,  as  I  write,  several  hundred  Mexicans  living  in 
box  cars  near  Chicago,  with  two  families  to  a  car  and  no 
decent  provision  for  the  most  primitive  necessities.  The 
conditions  in  the  lumber-camps  in  the  past  against  which 
many  workers  have  revolted  are,  according  to  the  late 
Professor  Carlton  Parker,  of  Washington  University,  **the 
kind  of  conditions  which  would  turn  any  -self-respecting 
American  into  a  revolutionist."^ 

The  slums  of  our  great  cities  are  not  created  by  foreigners. 
The  foreigner  is  forced  there  by  circumstances.  The  situa- 
tion in  the  Italian  quarter  of  Milwaukee,  as  described  by  a 
competent  witness  not  long  ago,  is,  we  hope,  un-American: 
"In  a  single  dwelling,  which  is  not  unlike  many  we  saw, 
there  lived  together  in  ignorant  misery  one  man,  two 
women,  ten  children,  six  dogs,  two  goats,  five  pigeons,  two 
horses,  and  other  animal  life  which  escaped  our  hurried 
observation."  The  same  investigator  says  that  the  Ghetto 
of  that  same  city  defies  description.  The  stockyards  district 
of  Kansas  City,  Kansas,  ought  to  receive  dishonorable  men- 
tion, when  specific  local  compliments  are  being  distributed. 

To  expect  to  assimilate  newcomers  to  a  high  standard  of 
American  life  under  such  conditions  constitutes  an  unwar- 
rantable reliance  upon  the  miraculous.  As  Professor  Edward 
A.  Steiner  says,  "The  American  people  as  a  whole  clamor 
with  a  kind  of  savage  hunger  for  the  assimilation  #of  the  im- 

1  The  Immigrants  in  America  Review,  July,  1916. 

2  The  Atlantic  Monthly,  November,  1917,  "I.  W,  W." 


94  CHRISTIAN  AMERICANIZATION 

migrant;  but  the  question  into  what  he  is  to  be  assimilated 
has  not  agitated  them  to  any  marked  degree."^ 

The  World  of  Work.  The  immigrant  comes  to  Amer- 
ica to  work.  The  best  news  which  he  can  hear  is  that  there 
is  a  job  awaiting  him.  He  is  not  looking  for  soft  jobs,  but 
steady  jobs  and  reasonably  good  pay.  He  wants  to  invest  his 
energy  in  America,  and  America  has  wanted  him  to  do  so. 
That  so  many  men  have  become  embittered,  and  at  last 
turned  to  hate  America,  is  something  for  which  the  Amer- 
ican people  ought  to  demand  an  explanation. 

Men,  who  afterward  became  good  Americans,  have  told 
me  of  the  circumstances  which  at  first  turned  them  against 
America.  It  is  not  always  a  deliberate  injustice.  It  is  quite 
as  often  a  lack  of  informatior>  or  of  a  friend  at  hand  who  can 
be  trusted.  The  long,  long  day  leaves  the  average  man  too 
exhausted  to  seek  a  night-school,  too  worn  out  to  go  to  church 
at  night.  By  making  it  impossible  for  men  and  women  to 
respond  to  American  appeals,  the  seven  days'  work  and  the 
twelve-hour  day  have  done  more  to  prevent  assimilation, 
than  the  vicious  and  immoral  agencies,  which  have  received 
the  m.ost  attention.  But  the  sense  of  helplessness,  the  conscious- 
ness of  being  unable  to  cope  v/ith  the  situation,  the  feeling 
of  being  the  victim  of  circumstances  over  which  they  have 
no  control,  owing  to  their  ignorance  and  inability  to  speak 
English ;  these  are  the  things  which  breed  despair  and  enmity, 
and  are  deadly  foes  to  Americanization. 

Exploiting  the  Foreigner.  The  foreigner  represents 
"easy  money"  to  numberless  unscrupulous  persons,  who  seem 
to  feel  that  as  they  "need  the  money,"  the  foreigners  are 
providentially   provided    to    furnish    it.      Grafting   foremen 

1  Steiner,  From  Alien  to  Citizen,  p.p.  166-167. 


ARRESTED  ASSIMILATION  95 

who  do  a  thriving  business  in  job  selling,  the  "banker"  who 
sends  money  home  or  poses  as  doing  so,  the  real  estate  shark 
who  unloads  land  which  is  still  under  water;  all  these  and 
many  others  fleece  foreigners  out  of  literally  millions  of  dol- 
lars each  year. 

I  am  informed  on  what  I  consider  the  most  reliable  au- 
thority that,  in  a  mid-western  city  not  long  ago,  a  lawyer 
Vv^as  consulted  by  a  Persian  concerning  some  property  in  the 
homeland  which  he  was  trying  to  sell  or  for  the  sale  of  which 
he  wanted  to  collect  the  proceeds.  The  lawyer  offered  to 
telephone  the  President  and  held  a  fake  telephone  conversa- 
tion with  him  in  the  client's  presence.  He  assured  the  client 
that  the  President  had  agreed  to  collect  the  bill  and  would 
declare  war  on  Turkey  if  it  was  not  paid.  The  transaction 
cost  the  client  $150.  As  no  returns  materialized,  the 
man  called  again  and  once  more  paid  for  a  fake  call  on  the 
telephone  and  another  fee  for  legal  advice.  The  dishonest 
lawyer  was  found  out  and  summoned  to  defend  himself  in 
a  suit  to  disbar  him.  I  do  not  know  the  outcome.  In  the 
same  section,  a  doctor  was  called  upon  in  his  office  by  two 
children  of  foreign  parentage  to  get  "something  for  a  cough" 
for  their  mother.  The  doctor  asked  them  how  much  money 
they  had  and  found  they  had  two  dollars  with  them.  He 
pressed  his  inquiry  and  found  that  they  had  enough  at  home 
to  make  up  seven  dollars.  He  sent  them  home  for  the  money 
and  upon  their  return  consented  to  part  with  a  bottle  of 
cough-dope  in  exchange  for  the  seven  dollars.  We  do  not 
cite  these  instances  as  universal,  but  they  are  prevalent 
enough  to  make  us  realize  that  the  foreigner  has  reason  to 
be  suspicious  of  America.     It  is  quite  likely  that  these  dis- 


96  CHRISTIAN  AMERICANIZATION 

honest  men  were  themselves  foreigners.     The  effect,  how- 
ever, is  the  same. 

The  Helpless  Wayfarer.  Our  Declaration  of  In- 
dependence, which  we  have  never  repudiated,  officially  ex- 
presses the  conviction  that  all  men  have  free  and  equal  rights 
before  the  law.  There  is  ground  for  suspicion  that  in 
practise,  in  the  mind  of  many  officers  of  the  law  as  well  as 
many  employers,  a  foreigner  has  no  rights  which  a  native 
American  is  bound  to  respect.  Oftentimes  policemen,  train- 
men, street-car  conductors,  and  others  who  are  employed 
to  discharge  specific  duties,  treat  the  typical  bewildered  for- 
eigner with  utter  disregard  of  his  need.  I  have — as  we, 
doubtless,  all  have — been  aroused  almost  to  fur>'  at  the  tone 
and  manner  which  these  servants  of  the  public  sometimes 
use  in  dealing  with  foreigners  whose  ignorance  of  the  lan- 
guage, inexperience,  and  bewilderment,  instead  of  appealing 
to  the  sympathy  and  humanity  of  such  officials,  seems  to 
rouse  only  contempt  or  anger. 

I  shall  never  forget  the  remark  of  a  man  who  stood  by 
my  side  on  a  railroad  platform,  as  we  watched  a  trainload  of 
westward  bound  immigrants  on  a  side  track.  They  were  hur- 
riedly buying  loaves  of  bread  from  hampers  brought  from  a 
near-by  bakery.  They  w^ere  just  a  lot  of  cheerful,  hungr}^ 
vigorous  men,  eager  to  get  to  work  and  willing  to  endure 
much  privation  for  the  privilege.  My  companion  remarked 
with  indescribable  scorn,  "There  are  a  lot  of  cattle  who  are 
to  become  future  American  citizens!"  It  is  impossible  for  the 
foreigner  to  remain  insensible  to  this  contempt.  He  had  not 
suspected  in  Europe  that  it  existed,  and  to  discover  it  here 
is  a  decided  shock.     How  much  that  attitude  has  arrested 


ARRESTED  ASSIMILATION  97 

assimilation  it  would  be  impossible  to  say,  but  it  is  one  of 
the  causes  of  bitterness  and  discontent  for  which  America 
must  suffer. 

Isolation.  The  isolation  of  the  foreign-born  from 
American  contact  is,  of  course,  the  crux  of  the  entire  mat- 
ter. A  Bishop  in  Scranton  said,  "My  people  do  not  live  in 
America.  America  goes  on  over  their  heads."  He  referred 
to  men  at  work  in  the  mines  which  underlie  that  city,  but 
it  is  figuratively  true  of  much  of  the  life  of  the  foreigner. 
They  do  not  come  into  contact  with  America.  A  friend  of 
mine,  a  Czech  in  Chicago,  told  me  that  he  lived  in  Chicago 
for  years  before  coming  into  contact  with  Americans.  The 
way  he  put  it  was,  "Chicago  was  in  America,  but  America 
was  not  in  Chicago."  (Of  course  he  referred  to  the  part 
of  Chicago  he  knew.) 

We  have  been  describing  in  this  part  of  our  study  the  un- 
favorable environment  which  concerns  more  particularly 
the  new  immigration  and  has  little  bearing  upon  the  assimila- 
tion of  the  older  groups.  It  is  at  this  point  that  we  touch 
one  of  the  most,  if  not  the  most,  fruitful  causes  of  unassimila- 
tion.  One  of  the  reasons  why  the  older  groups  have  not 
more  fully  entered  into  the  life  of  America  is  because  Amer- 
ican homes  and  American  social  life  have  been  generally 
closed  to  them.  I  cite  a  single  instance,  which  is  significant 
because  it  is  characteristic  and  not  in  the  least  exceptional. 
In  a  group  of  ministers  at  a  luncheon  where  I  was  a  guest 
and  had  spoken  of  Americanization  problems,  there  were 
present  several  men  who  were  not  born  in  America.  When 
I  had  finished  and  the  discussion  had  become  general,  one 
of  these  men  was  requested  and  heartily  urged   to  speak. 


98  CHRISTIAN  AMERICANIZATION 

He  was  one  of  the  finest-looking  men  in  the  room,  well- 
educated,  refined,  and  beloved  by  all,  a  man  to  attract  at- 
tention anywhere.  He  arose,  and  after  a  few  preliminary 
words,  paused  an  instant,  and  then  with  deep  feeling  said, 
"I  have  been  a  minister  for  twenty-one  years;  I  have  lived  in 
America  twenty  years;  but  I  have  never  been  in  an  Amer- 
ican home."  If  he  had  exploded  a  bomb,  he  would  not  have 
created  a  greater  sensation.  When  the  gathering  broke  up, 
the  guests  rushed  to  him  with  one  accord  and  poured  upon 
him  invitations  enough  to  fill  his  engagement  book  for 
months. 

Let  us  apply  the  test  to  ourselves.  How  many  of  us  have 
on  our  calling  list  or  have  ever  invited  into  our  homes  any 
of  the  people  of  whom  we  are  thinking?  May  I  add  that, 
if  we  have  not  done  so,  we  have  missed,  from  the  point  of 
view  of  pure  interest,  a  most  refreshing  experience,  as  well 
as  having  lost  invaluable  opportunities  for  interpreting  Amer- 
ica. "What  we  are  really  suffering  from  is.  .  .a  determined 
withdrawal  of  native  Americans  from  the  real  situation  in 
America,  a  positive  refusal  to  face  their  destiny,  a  stupid 
neglect  to  provide  anj^thing  for  the  immigrant  but  a  job."^ 

At  least  three  books  bearing  upon  the  phases  of  this 
problem  deserve  special  notice.  Grace  Abbott's  admir- 
able work,  The  Immigrant  and  the  Comrnunity,  is  one  of 
the  most  stimulating  and  suggestive  books  on  the  subject. 
The  other  two  books  are  autobiographies:  Professor  Steiner's 
From  Alien  to  Citizen  and  Marcus  E.  Ravage's  An  Amer- 
ican in  the  Making. 

The  facts  to  which  we  have  called  attention  in  this  chapter 
are  so  familiar  that  until  now  they  have  attracted  little  gcn- 

1  Kellor,  Straight  America,  p.  86. 


ARRESTED  ASSIMILATION  99 

eral  attention.  We  cannot  achieve  national  unity  by  shutting 
our  eyes  to  the  situation  and  going  blithely  on  our  way,  con- 
fidingly trusting  in  luck.  Resolutely  and  courageously  we 
must  face  the  facts  and  determine  relentless  warfare  against 
everything  which  threatens  the  realization  of  our  goal,  the 
achievement  of  our  destiny. 


CHAPTER  V 
THE  PATH  OF  PROGRESS 

PROGRESS  Is  made  through  the  monotonous  round 
of  our  daily  life,  but  it  registers  in  crises.  Chemical 
elements  in  solution  may  be  precipitated  and  crystal- 
ized  by  a  shock.  The  war  furnished  that  shock  for  thou- 
sands of  foreign-born  men  and  women  in  America  and  crys- 
talized  the  love  and  devotion  which  had  been  held  in  solu- 
tion. Heretofore  no  great  demand  had  been  made  upon 
them.  Most  of  us  are  not  sufficiently  introspective  to  know 
just  what  takes  place  in  our  minds  while  we  are  passing 
through  a  transition.  The  great  mass  of  foreign-born  citi- 
zens in  America  had  never  faced  a  great  issue  like  war. 
They  had  been  slowly  growing  American  souls  but  had  not 
yet  found  themselves. 

A  man  of  foreign  birth  said  to  me  recently,  "I  had  taken 
out  my  first  papers  and  declared  my  intention  of  becoming 
a  citizen,  but  Sweden  was  still  first  in  my  heart.  Then  one 
day — it  was  the  fifteenth  of  October — it  came  to  me  what 
America  was  doing  in  the  war;  how  unselfish  were  her 
purposes;  what  a  wonderful  part  she  was  playing.  That 
day  America  became  first,  and  Sweden  dropped  to  a  second 
place.  Now  when  I  see  Old  Glory,  I  can  say  'my  country!'  '* 
The  depth  of  feeling  with  which  he  uttered  the  words  spoke 
volumes. 

Jacob  RIIs  was  as  loyal  and  true  an  American  as  ever 
lived,  but  even  he  needed  to  go   through  this  awakening 

101 


102  CHRISTIAN  AMERICANIZATION 

process ;  he  had  to  discover  by  a  sudden  revelation  how  much 
America  meant.  While  on  a  visit  to  his  native  Denmark, 
he  became  very  ill.  One  day  during  his  convalescence,  he 
was  lying  where  he  could  look  out  upon  the  harbor,  when 
there  hove  in  sight  a  vessel  flying  the  Stars  and  Stripes.  I 
will  let  him  tell  in  his  own  way  what  took  place.  "All  at 
once  there  sailed  past,  close  inshore,  a  ship  flying  at  the  top 
the  flag  of  freedom,  blown  out  on  the  breeze  till  every  star  in 
it  shone  bright  and  clear.  That  moment  I  knew.  Gone  were 
illness,  discouragement,  and  gloom;  forgotten,  weakness  and 
suffering,  the  cautions  of  doctor  and  nurse.  I  sat  up  in  bed 
and  shouted,  laughed,  and  cried  by  turns,  waving  my  hand- 
kerchief to  the  flag  out  there.  They  thought  I  had  lost  my 
head,  but  I  told  them,  'No,  thank  God';  I  had  found  it, 
and  my  heart,  too,  at  last.  I  knew  then  that  it  was  my 
flag;  that  my  children's  home  was  mine,  indeed;  that  I  also 
had  become  an  American  in  truth.  And  I  thanked  God, 
and  like  unto  the  man  sick  of  the  palsy,  arose  from  my  bed 
and  went  home,  healed.*'^ 

We  have  insisted  that  becoming  an  American  is  a  pro- 
found inner  experience.  There  is  a  sense  in  which  we  may 
say  that  one  must  be  born  again  of  the  American  spirit  In 
order  to  become  an  American.  As  in  a  religious  experience 
it  is  often  an  emotional  upheaval  which  awakens  us,  so  it  is 
in  this  matter  of  becoming  an  American.  An  eminent  psy- 
chologist has  spoken  of  religious  conversion  as  "the  shock  of 
regeneration.*'  The  war  has  furnished  the  crisis  and  pro- 
duced the  needed  shock  which  will,  we  believe,  save  America 
for  a  true  national  unity. 

Encouraging    Signs.    In  the  last  chapter  we  were  pri- 

1  Riis,   The  Making  of  an  American,  p.  443. 


THE  PATH   OF  PROGRESS  103 

marily  concerned  with  those  influences  which  were  unfavor- 
able to  assimilation  and  tended  to  retard  it.  Of  course  that  is 
not  the  whole  story;  else  America  would  long  since  have 
been  ruined  past  redemption.  There  are  more  wholesome 
and  potent  influences  at  work  in  our  American  life  upon 
which  we  rest  our  faith  in  the  nation's  genius  to  perform  this 
miracle  of  assimilation.  We  may  overcome  the  resistance 
to  assirnilation,  if  we  understand  the  forces  which  are  at 
work  to  counteract  them.  If  we  gauge  them  fairly,  we  may 
strengthen  and  accelerate  them. 

Because  Americanization  is  a  process,  it  must  be  regarded 
as  relative.  The  crisis  reveals  the  degree  to  which  assimila- 
tion has  progressed.  When  in  this  chapter  we  are  speak- 
ing of  favorable  influences  which  promote  assimilation,  we 
have  in  mind  the  trend,  the  process,  the  relative  achieve- 
ment, and  not  altogether  complete  and  perfect  assimilation. 
We  have  suggested,  in  a  previous  chapter,  that  there  is  no 
arbitrary  standard  or  graduated  scale  for  testing  progress 
toward  Americanization.  Doubtless  there  is  a  mysterious 
line  which  marks  the  transition,  the  shifting  of  the  balance 
of  influence  from  heredity  to  environment.  But  most  men 
are  wholly  unconscious  of  any  such  tropical  line.  A  man 
may  be  considered  to  have  become  an  American  when  he 
ceases  to  regard  himself  as  a  foreigner  and  thinks  of  Amer- 
ica in  terms  of  proprietary  interest;  when  he  can  say  "my 
country,"  "our  flag,"  *Sve  Americans,"  instead  of  "your  coun- 
try," "your  flag,"  "you  Americans."  We  need  to  be  warned 
against  accepting  superficial  indications  of  assimilation  as 
conclusive  and  allowing  them  to  pass  for  more  than  they  are 
worth.     The  use  of  carpets  and  bathtubs  and  the  wearing 


104  CHRISTIAN  AMERICANIZATION 

of  American  clothes  are  not  evidences  of  Americanization. 
When  his  old  clothes  wear  out,  a  foreigner  naturally  buys 
American  clothes.  With  all  the  advertising  and  display  of 
departm.ent  stores  and  the  deceptive  allurements  of  the  in- 
stalment plan,  a  newcomer  must  have  a  strong  moral  char- 
acter to  resist  the  appeal  of  American  rugs,  furniture,  and 
bathroom  fixtures.  These  all  help  to  make  attractive  and 
comfortable  homes,  but  Americanization  is  a  matter  of  the 
spirit  and  not  the  letter.  The  letter  is  often  deceptive.  It 
is  to  the  spirit  we  must  look  for  evidence  of  life.  The  out- 
ward and  visible  signs  of  this  inward  grace  of  the  spirit  must 
be  sought  in  other  directions.  It  costs  more  to  become  an 
American  than  the  price  of  furniture  and  clothes. 

It  Takes  Time.  If  we  reread  Dr.  Laidlaw's  statement 
concerning  the  racial  amalgamation  of  the  past  generations,^ 
we  will  be  impressed  by  the  fact  that  time  is  an  essential 
element  in  the  process  of  assimilation,  as  it  is  in  education 
and  in  everything  else  that  has  to  do  with  life.  We  need 
constantly  to  keep  in  view  the  background  of  the  past  against 
which  w^e  see  the  present. 

A  picture  of  the  typical  American  of  fifty  years  ago  and 
a  similar  picture  of  the  typical  American  as  he  is  to-day  would 
probably  fail  to  not  reveal  any  very  marked  divergence 
in  character.  We  know  we  have  changed,  but  we  do  not 
believe  that  we  are  less  American  and  more  European. 
There  is  a  greater  variety  of  individual  types  in  our  popula- 
tion, but  there  has  been  a  substantial  maintenance  of  the 
national  type.  When  we  consider  individuals,  we  find 
abundant  evidence  of  the  potencies  of  the  American  spirit 
to  transform  old-world  men  and  women  into   real  Amer- 

1  See  page  30. 


THE  PATH  OF  PROGRESS  105 

icans.  We  are  naturally  impatient  with  what  seems  delay. 
We  forget  that  life  processes  are  slow,  secret,  subtle,  and 
unconscious.  When  a  nation  of  100,000,000  souls  is  in- 
volved, the  process  of  developing  spiritual  unity  requires  im- 
measurably greater  patience  and  faith. 

Wholesome  Signs.  We  ought  to  thank  God  and  take 
courage  every  time  a  foreign-born  man  or  woman  or  a 
foreign-born  group  rises  in  revolt  against  conditions  which 
we  know  to  be  un-American. 

Generations  of  oppression,  petty  tyranny,  and  social  re- 
pression, such  as  these  people  have  experienced,  breed  either 
submissiveness  and  servility  or  sullen  hate.  We  have  during 
the  past  few  months  seen  the  revolutionary  spirit  become 
rampant  in  Europe;  but  that  has  not  been  the  case  in  times 
past,  and  even  yet  many  have  not  the  spirit  to  rise  and  de- 
mand their  full  rights.  America  has  taught  her  immigrant 
folk  lessons  of  self-reliance  and  self-assertion  which  would 
disconcert  their  former  masters  in  Europe.  The  reflex  in- 
fluence of  America  is  felt  in  the  remotest  parts  of  Europe, 
and  in  Asia  as  well.  The  spirit  of  America  is  the  spirit  of 
self-respect,  independence  of  domination,  and  resentment  of 
injustice  and  tyranny.  Men  or  women  born  to  a  life  of 
toil  in  Europe  find  a  new  spirit  in  America,  and  the  measure 
of  their  assimilation  of  the  American  spirit  is  the  measure  of 
their  independence,  their  self-assertion,  and  their  self-reli- 
ance. 

Of  course  there  must  go  with  these  a  higher  spirit,  which 
is  harder  to  acquire — the  spirit  of  consideration  for  others; 
of  unselfishness;  of  readiness  to  yield  personal  claims  that 
all  may  be  benefitted  and  to  surrender  non-essentials  for  the 


106  CHRISTIAN  AMERICANIZATION 

sake  of  higher  Interests.  But  my  contention  is  that  the  tem- 
per of  naturalized  citizens  which  makes  them  resent  and 
rebel  at  un-American  conditions  is  an  indication  that  they 
have  partaken  of  the  American  spirit.  Discontent  is  a 
primary  and  essential  element  of  ambition  and  must  be 
strong  in  a  man's  heart  before  he  can  aspire  to  something 
better.  The  very  fact  that  these  men  were  not  content  with 
Europe  indicates  that  they  had  in  them  the  stuff  of  which 
Americans  are  made.  I  know  full  well  that,  in  the  minds  of 
some  Americans,  a  contented  spirit  on  the  part  of  these 
people,  a  spirit  of  humble  gratitude  for  the  privilege  of  being 
admitted  to  America,  is  considered  to  be  a  more  fitting  at- 
titude of  mind.  The  ruling  classes  of  Europe  have  laughed 
at  our  gospel  of  equal  rights  and  say  that  we  have  spoiled 
these  peasants.  If  we  believe  our  own  gospel,  we  must  hail 
with  joy  that  noble  discontent  which  aspires  to  better  things 
and  will  not  be  content  with  conditions  which  we  know  are 
not  representative  of  the  best  of  America. 

Partakers  o£  the  Community  Spirit.  We  have 
recognized  that  to  separateness  and  segregation  from  the 
vitalizing  and  wholesome  American  influences  was  due  much 
of  our  failure  to  assimilate  alien  elements  in  our  population. 
Everything,  therefore,  w^hich  indicates  the  growth  and  deep- 
ening of  community  consciousness  on  the  part  of  the  foreign- 
born  is  a  measure  of  the  growth  and  deepening  of  the  Amer- 
ican spirit  in  their  lives. 

One  of  the  first,  and  perhaps  one  of  the  most  significant, 
signs  of  this  spirit  is  the  establishment  of  homes  in  America. 
The  purchase  of  property,  not  for  investment  but  for  the 
establishment  of  a  home,  is  for  the  immigrant  the  beginning 


THE  PATH  OF  PROGRESS  107 

of  a  new  relationship  to  the  community.  He  and  his  family 
become  more  deeply  rooted  in  the  soil.  Everything  which 
affects  the  public  welfare  becomes  a  matter  of  concern  to 
the  immigrant  family.  The  school,  the  local  government, 
taxes,  and  civic  improvements  are  all  of  interest  to  him.  He 
has  become  a  stockholder  and  partner  in  the  business.  There 
are  reported  to  be  more  than  thirty  thousand  people  of 
Polish  birth  who  own  their  own  homes  in  Buffalo.  There 
are  many  thousand  home  owners  of  the  same  nationality  in 
Detroit  and  Cleveland.  A  Polish  immigrant  has  become 
the  health  officer  of  Buffalo,  and  a  Hungarian  immigrant  is 
— or  was  In  19 17 — the  mayor  of  Indiana  Harbor,  Indiana. 

Not  long  ago,  on  an  extension  of  the  subway  system  in 
New  York  City,  I  overheard  a  man  with  a  decidedly  foreign 
accent  telling  a  friend  what  a  prolonged  struggle  the  tax- 
payers and  property  owners  of  that  section  had  gone  through 
to  get  the  line  extended.  He  spoke  with  a  sense  of  personal 
interest  and  possession  which  betokened  a  real  and  deep 
community  spirit.  During  the  recent  *'wet-and-dry"  cam- 
paign in  Indiana  it  was  conceded  that  the  foreigners  of  East 
Hammond  would  vote  "wet" ;  but  when  the  votes  were 
counted,  to  the  amazement  of  both  sides,  these  same  for- 
eigners had  carried  their  district  for  the  "drys" !  In  matters 
of  community  welfare.  It  Is  noticeable  that  our  citizens  of 
foreign  birth  are  conspicuous  for  their  devotion.  To  them, 
participation  In  public  affairs  Is  a  new  experience.  Amer- 
icans of  the  older  stock  are  often  conspicuous  for  their  in- 
difference. 

The  quickening  of  community  consciousness  has  been  im- 
measurably advanced  by  the  many  activities  connected  with 


108  CHRISTIAN  AMERICANIZATION 

home  service  during  the  war.  The  Red  Cross,  the  "war 
chest,"  food  conservation,  Liberty  Loans,  and  other 
campaigns,  and  finally  the  Inspired  "block  party,"  with  its 
community  service  flag,  have  done  more  to  enrich  the  com- 
munity spirit  and  endow  it  with  a  new  self-consciousness 
than  anything  else  that  has  ever  come  to  the  life  of  America. 

Enrichment  of  America.  In  sharp  contrast  with  the 
withdrawal  from  American  life  on  the  part  of  many  new- 
comers, who  colonize  and  refuse  to  share  the  responsibility 
of  the  country  of  their  residence,  is  the  inspiring  example  of 
thousands  of  other  men  and  women  of  foreign  birth  vs^ho 
have  demonstrated  their  Americanism  by  identifying  them- 
selves with  all  well-defined  movements  to  advance  the  higher 
welfare  of  the  nation. 

If  we  call  the  roll  of  conspicuous  names  in  almost  any 
phase  of  activity  for  the  national  welfare,  this  fact  is  at  once 
apparent.  To  be  a  great  philanthropist  or  social  engineer, 
an  eminent  physician,  scientist,  or  educator,  one  does  not 
need  to  have  been  born  in  America.  To  have  vision,  in- 
sight, and  idealism  raised  to  the  highest  power,  one  need  not 
be  a  descendant  of  the  Mayflower  Pilgrims. 

The  list  is  so  long  that  we  hesitate  even  to  mention  names. 
The  record  of  men  like  Carl  Schurz,  Franz  Siegel,  and  hun- 
dreds of  others  less  conspicuous  but  equally  faithful  and  de- 
voted represents  a  glorious  chapter  In  the  development  of  the 
nation.  The  juvenile  court  was  conceived  by  a  man  of  Scandi- 
navian birth.  One  of  the  best-loved  men  in  New  York  was 
Jacob  Rlis,  a  native  of  Denmark,  who  helped  to  make  the 
more  comfortable  "half"  understand  "how  the  other  half 
lives."  When  Governor  Hughes  was  trying  to  abolish  race- 


THE  PATH  OF  PROGRESS  109 

track  gambling  in  New  York  State,  the  man  to  cast  the  decid- 
ing vote  in  the  senate  was  a  German  immigrant,  Senator 
Faulkner,  who,  though  dangerously  ill,  insisted  upon  being 
carried  to  Albany  and  wheeled  in  a  chair  into  the  senate 
chamber,  in  order  to  record  his  vote.  Members  of  the  Jewish 
race  often  have  a  positive  genius  for  philanthropy  and  a 
social  passion  which  has  enriched  America  beyond  computa- 
tion; a  partial  list  of  names  includes  men  and  women  like 
Samuel  Gompers,  Julius  Rosenwald,  Rabbi  Wise,  the  Straus 
brothers,  Mortimer  Schiff,  Julius  Kahn,  Paul  Warburg, 
Lillian  Wald,  Felix  Adler,  Ambassador  Morgenthau,  Simon 
Bamberger  (a  Jew  who  is  the  "Gentile"  governor  of  the 
Mormon  state  of  Utah),  Justice  Brandeis,  and  Edward  A. 
Steiner.  It  is  difficult  to  think  of  Andrew  Carnegie  as  one 
of  the  new  Americans,  but  he  was  a  Scotch  immigrant. 
Among  eminent  educators  we  may  mention  Dr.  Franz  Boas, 
professor  of  anthropology  in  Columbia  University  and  a 
Chevalier  of  the  Legion  of  Honor;  the  great  naturalist  Pro- 
fessor Louis  Agassiz  of  Harvard;  Professor  Michael  Pupin 
of  Columbia  University;  and  Enrico  Suzallo,  president  of 
the  University  of  Washington.  The  late  Walter  Rauschen- 
busch,  a  saint  and  prophet  of  the  social  order,  was  the  son 
of  a  German  immigrant  of  the  Revolutionary  period.  I 
have  compiled  a  long  list  of  naturalized  Americans  or  the 
sons  or  daughters  of  naturalized  citizens,  who  have  gone  out 
from  America  to  foreign  mission  fields.  Men  in  the  Chris- 
tian ministry  in  America  who  have  come  of  immigrant 
stock  represent  some  of  the  best  leadership  in  the  American 
pulpit  to-day.  These  all  stand  as  irrefutable  witnesses  of 
the  life-giving  power  of  the  American  spirit. 


110  CHRISTIAN  AMERICANIZATION 

Faithful  unto  Death.  The  casuahy  lists  have  been 
a  revelation  even  to  those  who  knew  how  the  foreign  ele- 
ment w^as  intermingled  with  the  American  stock.  The  de- 
votion and  sacrifice  of  foreign-born  parents  in  giving  their 
sons;  the  response  of  these  Americans  to  the  appeal  of  the 
Liberty  Loans  and  all  other  drives;  the  services  of  yeomen 
in  the  navy  and  of  army  and  Red  Cross  nurses ;  all  represent 
the  spirit  of  millions  of  the  foreign-born  who  were  eager  and 
ready  to  pour  out  their  newly  discovered  love  and  devotion 
for  America. 

Agencies  o£  Progress.  We  have  every  reasonable 
ground  for  confidence  and  courage  as  we  seek  to  understand 
more  perfectly  the  agencies  and  influences  which  may  be 
relied  upon  and  which  truly  represent  and  interpret  the 
American  spirit.  We  have  criticized  the  past  failure  of  the 
federal  and  state  governments  to  seize  the  psychological  ad- 
vantage offered  at  the  beginning  of  the  immigrant's  adjust- 
ment to  new  surroundings.  The  government  has  in  more 
recent  times  made  elaborate  studies  and  has  gathered  valu- 
able data  upon  which,  rather  than  upon  the  passions  of  the 
war  years,  it  is  hoped  the  policy  of  the  reconstruction  era 
is  to  be  based. 

The  Bureau  of  Education  is  doing  admirable  work  by 
way  of  promoting  the  teaching  of  English  to  non-English- 
speaking  peoples  in  the  United  States,  and  the  Commissioner 
of  Education  is  bringing  to  this  service  a  high-minded  devo- 
tion and  understanding  which  promises  further  great  achieve- 
ments. The  government  has  made  the  largest  appropriation 
for  the  program  of  the  Bureau  ever  voted  for  education. 
The  teaching  of  English  in  the  military  camps  and  the  service 


THE  PATH  OF  PROGRESS  111 

of  the  Red  Cross  in  immigrant  homes  have  brought  these 
public  agencies  into  close  human  touch  with  the  personal 
and  family  problems  of  the  unassimilated,  and  this  must 
produce  far-reaching  reactions  in  both  directions.  The  gov- 
ernment is  not  a  policeman — at  least,  not  in  the  old  concep- 
tion of  a  policeman.  It  is  the  nation  organized  for  self- 
direction  and  self-development.  The  far-reaching  plans  of 
the  Department  of  the  Interior  for  land  development  and 
larger  opportunities  for  obtaining  land  credit,  in  order  to 
enable  men  of  limited  means  to  become  land  owners,  are 
certain  to  produce  most  beneficial  results.  They  will  exert 
a  wide  influence  for  good  among  our  younger  immigrants, 
who"  have,  by  their  participation  in  the  war,  become  pos- 
sessed of  a  new  spirit  of  oneness  with  America.  The  govern- 
ment's interest  in  housing,  to  meet  the  needs  of  communities 
that  were  created  or  suddenly  expanded  by  the  emergency 
of  war  production,  has  established  precedents  and  standards 
which  we  must  not  allow  to  be  dissipated.  New  commun- 
ities, such  as  Yorkship  Village,  New  Jersey,  Harriman, 
Pennsylvania,  and  the  tract  adjacent  to  Chester  on  the  north 
and  Marcus  Hook,  Pennsylvania,  on  the  south,  and  some 
fifty  or  more  other  model  communities  which  are  under  con- 
struction have  been  financed  by  government  investments  and 
loans.  They  have  demonstrated  that,  with  intelligent  plan- 
ning, it  is  possible  to  raise  the  standards  of  housing  and  the 
whole  community  life.  This  movement  was  the  outcome  of 
the  constructive  work  of  the  National  Housing  Association 
and  kindred  agencies.  Government  employment  agencies 
represent  another  step  forward.  Now  that  their  service  has 
passed  the  experimental  stage  and  is  to  be  extended,  grave 


112  CHRISTIAN  AMERICANIZATION 

faults  will  be  corrected.  They  are  among  the  most  valuable 
aids  which  the  government  can  render  to  the  foreign-born. 

Much  has  been  gained  when  the  public  has  become  accus- 
tomed to  thinking  of  the  government  as  responsible  for  the 
welfare  of  the  people,  who  are,  in  a  sense,  still  its  wards, 
and  must  be  until  they  have  in  truth  become  Americanized. 

The  Dignity  of  Naturalization.  The  scandalous 
misuse  of  naturalization  papers  in  the  past  and  the  cheap 
and  undignified  way  in  which  even  perfectly  legal  transac- 
tions were  consummated  have  constituted  a  grievous  and 
tragic  failure  to  make  citizenship  appear  the  noble  and  lofty 
privilege  that  we  know  it  to  be.  The  city  of  Cleveland  has 
the  distinction  of  being  in  the  van  of  many  good  movements, 
and  now  it  must  be  given  the  credit  for  an  innovation  which 
raised  the  ceremony  of  naturalization  to  a  new  dignity.  The 
city  and  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  combined  in  an  educational  pro- 
gram in  behalf  of  candidates  for  citizenship.  When  the 
members  of  that  first  class  were  to  be  granted  their  final 
papers  and  the  oath  of  allegiance  was  to  be  administered, 
a  public  reception  was  arranged,  and  addresses  were  delivered 
by  the  presiding  judge  (now  one  of  the  justices  of  the 
Supreme  Court),  by  a  City  Judge,  who  was  himself  a  natur- 
alized citizen,  and  by  other  public-spirited  and  high-minded 
citizens.  The  administration  of  the  oath  was  as  solemn  as 
if  it  had  been  a  sacrament,  and  never  before  in  America  has 
such  a  "confirmation  class"  been  seen  as  assembled  in  the 
United  States  district  court-room  that  day.  Cleveland's  good 
example  was  contagious,  and  since  then,  in  our  large  cities 
at  least,  this  dignifying  of  the  ceremony  of  naturalization 
has  been  maintained.    The  Fourth  of  July  has  now  come  to 


THE  PATH   OF  PROGRESS  113 

be  for  naturalization  what  Easter  is  for  entrance  upon 
church  membership. 

But  our  concern  and  interest  ought  not  to  stop  with  the 
receipt  of  the  naturalization  papers  which  are  the  patent  of 
American  nobility.  Politicians  and  partisan  interests  are 
very  much  alive  to  the  importance  of  enrolling  this  new 
citizenship  for  their  own  ends.  Ought  not  the  socially 
minded  and  unselfish  agencies  to  enlist  this  newly  conferred 
power  for  the  building  of  a  better  America?  Some  re- 
sourceful person  should  work  out  a  practical  plan  for 
extending  this  educational  propaganda  beyond  natural- 
ization and  lending  practical  aid.  Many  Industrial  concerns 
have  made  citizenship  a  condition  of  advancement. 

Pressure  brought  to  bear  among  men  of  foreign  birth  to 
become  citizens  is  well  meant,  but  fraught  with  danger.  The 
importance  of  full  and  careful  education  as  to  the  meaning 
of  citizenship,  the  history  and  ideals  of  America,  and  govern- 
mental principles  has  been  recognized.  This  education 
should  be  popularized  and  brought  within  reach  of  all,  both 
men  and  women.  It  is  only  by  such  a  process  of  education 
that  men  come  to  know  America.  According  to  recent  con- 
fessions many  an  oath  of  allegiance  has  been  sworn  lightly 
and  with  mental  reservation.  If  employment  be  conditioned 
upon  citizenship,  we  cheapen  citizenship. 

Educational  Plans.  The  influence  of  our  public 
schools  upon  the  process  of  assimilation  can  hardly  be  over- 
estimated. One  of  the  strongest  arguments  against  the 
parochial  school  is  its  class  bias,  which  is  inimical  to  the 
spirit  of  free  democracy.  The  coercive  measures  resorted 
to  by  Roman  Catholic  priests  and  some  Protestant  pastors 


114  CHRISTIAN  AMERICANIZATION 

to  compel  attendance  upon  parochial  schools  should  be  re- 
sisted as  valiantly  as  any  other  encroachment  upon  personal 
liberty.  We  must  safeguard  the  educational  freedom  of 
every  citizen  as  vigilantly  as  we  would  the  priceless  privilege 
of  religious  liberty.  Private  schools  of  the  more  democratic 
type  are  powerful  Americanization  agencies,  owing  to  the 
greater  intimacy  of  the  social  life  and  the  continuity  of  social 
contacts,  which  cannot  be  had  so  fully  in  the  public  schools. 
There  are,  however,  but  few  secondary  schools  in  the  country 
to  which  foreign-born  students  can  be  admitted.  The 
Mount  H'ermon  School,  founded  by  Dwight  L.  Moody,  is 
an  illustration  of  a  private  school  which  has  exerted  a  power- 
ful influence  upon  hundreds  of  the  youth  of  foreign  birth  or 
parentage.  The  influence  of  college  life  upon  foreign-born 
young  men  and  women  or  children  of  foreign  parents  who 
are  able  to  enter  is  of  great  potency,  and  it  is  the  atmosphere 
in  which  the  most  ambitious  and  promising  of  these  young 
people  are  going  to  get  their  working  convictions  of  Amer- 
ica. 

The  influence  of  the  public  school  has  never  received  a 
finer  tribute  than  that  paid  to  it  by  Mary  Antin  in  The 
Promised  Land.  Thousands  of  school-teachers  have  felt 
that  their  high  calling  was  a  mission  to  interpret  America 
to  the  boys  and  girls  of  foreign  parentage,  and  the  influence 
which  they  have  wielded  can  never  be  adequately  measured 
nor  sufficiently  appreciated.  In  the  Ladies'  Home  Journal 
for  April,  191 8,  there  was  a  striking  short  story,  by  James 
F.  Dwyer.  It  was  entitled  "The  Little  Man  in  the  Smoker." 
The  discussion  in  a  Pullman  smoker  had  turned  upon  Amer- 
ica's preparedness  for  the  part  she  was  called  upon  to  play  in 


THE  PATH  OF  PROGRESS  115 

the  war.  One  member  of  the  party  had  expressed  rather  un- 
complimentary opinions  as  to  America's  military  powers.  A 
little  man  in  the  corner,  after  listening  to  the  un-American 
exponent  of  America's  military  weakness,  finally  gets  the 
floor,  and  in  a  quiet  voice  tells  his  own  story : 

"  'I  am  a  Swede ;  so  is  my  wife.  We  came  to  New  York 
in  1889.  I  couldn't  speak  English,  neither  could  my  wife. . . 
My  oldest  boy.  Christian,  was  born  in  the  basement  of  that 
house  on  One  Hundred  and  Thirty-seventh  Street.  So  were 
my  second  son,  Sigurd,  my  youngest  boy,  Henrik,  and  my 
daughter,  Hilda.  When  Christian  was  old  enough  to  go  to 
school,  I  took  him  'round  to  Public  School  No.  186  on  One 
Hundred  and  Forty-fifth  Street.  I  saw  the  principal,  a  nice 
man.  He  took  Christian  and  me  into  his  office,  and  he  ques- 
tioned me. .  .*We  will  do  the  best  for  little  Christian,  and 
when  your  other  children  are  big  enough  to  come  to  school, 
we  will  look  after  them  too." 

'*  'Gentlemen,  that  schoolmaster  kept  his  word.  My  chil- 
dren were  everything  to  me,  and  he  had  them  in  his  care  for 
nearly  half  of  their  waking  time ...  I  learned  to  speak  cor- 
rect English  from  my  son  Christian.  He  taught  my  wife 
and  me.  I  learned  from  him  of  George  Washington,  of 
Abraham  Lincoln,  of  Nathan  Hale,  of  Grant,  of  a  thousand 
others.  He  got  it  at  the  school,  got  it  from  the  principal 
who  didn't  care  whether  I  was  a  janitor  or  a  barrister,  and 
whose  only  duty  it  was  to  teach  boys  to  be  good  citizens. 

"  'They  made  my  boy,  Christian,  flag  bearer  at  the  as- 
sembly exercises. .  .1  went  over  one  morning  and  saw  him, 
and  I  cried ...  Christian  graduated,  gentlemen.  He  won  a 
medal  for  history,  my  Christian,  and  I  was  there,  there  on 


116  CHRISTIAN  AMERICANIZATION 

the  piatf orm  when  it  was  presented  to  him .  . .  Listen  to  me 
a  little  while,  and  I  will  tell  you  what  this  country,  this 
United  States,  has  done  to  prepare  for  war!  I  cried  that 
evening.  Yes,  sir,  I  am  not  ashamed  to  acknowledge  it,  I 
cried !  It  was  a  gold  medal  presented  by  that  commissioner 
that  I  had  been  introduced  to,  and  my  son  had  got  it.  My 
son,  Christian!  And  I  was  a  Swede,  a  laboring  man  from 
Upsala,  who  was  working  as  a  janitor.  That  commissioner 
wrote  Christian  to  come  and  see  him .  . .  My  boy,  Christian 
Sigbold,  earned  last  year  over  thirteen  thousand  dollars! 
He  is  a  junior  partner  in  the  firm  he  went  to  work  for  as  an 
office  boy  that  day. 

'*  'My  second  boy,  Sigurd,  also  won  a  medal  when  he 
graduated ...  My  boy,  Sigurd,  became  a  doctor,  helped  by 
the  principal.  He  is  a  specialist.  He  is  young,  but  he  is 
well  known... A  special  train  took  him  from  New  York 
to  Chicago  a  few  months  ago,  so  that  he  could  perform  an 
operation  on  a  millionaire's  baby.  Henrik  also  became  a 
flag  bearer  in  that  school .  .  .  Strong  as  a  young  bull  he  grew, 
and  when  he  walked  down  the  aisle  carrying  the  silk  flag, 
you  would  think  he  was  a  young  Crusader.  He  graduated 
and  became  an  architect.' 

"The  train  was  slowing  up.  'This  stop  is  the  nearest  sta- 
tion to  one  of  Uncle  Sam's  biggest  camps,'  continued  the 
little  man,  *and  I  have  three  sons  and  a  son-in-law  in  that 
camp,  sir.  The  old  country  has  not  been  asleep.  She's  been 
preparing,  but  preparing  in  a  different  way  from  the 
Huns.'  "1 

That  is  not  an  over-colored  picture.  It  is  well  for  us  to 
remember  that  millions  of  boys  and  girls  have  been  drinking 

1  Reprinted  from  "The  Little  Man  in  the  Smoker,"  by  the 
courtesy  of  the  Paget  Literary  Agency. 


THE  PATH  OF  PROGRESS  117 

in  the  love  and  devotion  to  democracy  and  freedom  in  our 
public  schools.  The  greater  reason  for  making  them  safe 
for  democracy  and  keeping  them  free  from  exploitation ! 

But  now  we  must  consider  the  extension  of  that  influence. 
The  night-school  for  teaching  English  places  within  reach 
of  the  ambitious  the  opportunity  which  has  been  denied  them 
of  fitting  themselves  for  larger  things.  But  the  night-school 
must  be  popularized  and  humanized.  It  cannot  be  the  same 
kind  of  a  school  as  the  day-school.  It  is  a  school  for  tired 
working  young  men  and  young  women,  and  needs  to  be  bright 
and  cheerful,  fresh  and  stimulating.  We  have  abundant 
testimony  to  the  effect  that  for  lack  of  these  elements  it  often 
falls  short  of  even  ordinary  efficiency.  The  uniform  testimony 
brought  out  by  every  investigation  of  night-schools  for  the 
foreign-born  emphasizes  the  fact  that  long  hours  of  toil  pre- 
vent the  great  majority  from  availing  themselves  of  this 
privilege.  Syracuse,  Rochester,  Cleveland,  and  Detroit  have 
been  setting  new  standards  for  the  extension  of  this  privilege 
and  making  the  night-school  truly  worth  while.  They  have 
had  men  of  vision  and  imagination  to  direct,  and  the  boards 
have  followed  their  lead. 

The  extension  of  the  school  influence  is  bringing  the  life- 
giving  spirit  of  our  democracy  within  reach  of  foreign-born 
mothers.  The  kindergarten,  with  its  outreach  to  the  mother 
in  the  home,  lays  siege  to  that  citadel  of  conservatism.  The  ex- 
tension and  enlargement  of  this  service  is  of  prime  importance. 
The  appointment  of  a  school  nurse  who  can  form  a  connect- 
ing link  between  the  foreign  home  and  the  school  is  a  practical 
measure  which  has  been  inaugurated  in  Syracuse.  In  Syracuse, 
also,  a  very  happy  plan  has  been  conceived.     Election  Day, 


118  CHRISTIAN  AMERICANIZATION 

which  is  a  holiday,  is  made  the  occasion  for  getting  parents 
to  the  school-building.  Interesting  exercises  are  held  there, 
including  an  educational  address  in  the  native  tongue  of  the 
parents  represented.  Ingenious  teachers  have  wrought  out 
many  practical  and  highly  successful  measures  for  overcoming 
inertia,  timidity,  and  other  barriers  which  separate  parents  of 
foreign  birth  from  the  influences  of  the  public  school.  Here 
is  ample  scope  for  the  genius  of  loving  minds  and  hearts. 

The  school  that  is  inspired  by  a  lofty  vision  of  its  function 
as  a  radiating  center  of  Americanism  will  not  confine  its  activ- 
ity to  instruction  in  what  might  be  called  the  "technique" 
of  citizenship  but  will  be  alive  to  every  opportunity  to  diffuse 
the  American  spirit  throughout  the  community.  With  the 
possible  exception  of  a  wide-awake  church,  the  public  school 
is  the  greatest  dynamic  force  in  our  democracy. 

The  Public  Forum.  The  influence  of  centers  like 
Cooper  Union  in  New  York  City  for  many  years,  the  Ford 
Hall  Forum  in  Boston,  the  Chicago  Commons  under  Graham 
Taylor,  and  the  multiplication  of  these  centers  of  public  educa- 
tion and  discussion  represent  a  popular  educational  agency 
which  is  essential  in  a  growing  democracy.  The  seething  spirit 
of  freedom,  newly  born  in  the  hearts  of  multitudes  who  have 
never  known  the  privilege  of  free  speech  and  open  discussion 
of  public  affairs,  may  alarm  the  older  American  element,  but 
it  is  the  school  of  democracy.  The  many  clubs,  societies,  and 
*'sokols''  in  the  centers  of  immigrant  population,  have  offered 
a  vent  for  the  pent-up  passions,  questionings,  suspicions,  aspira- 
tions, and  strivings  which  have  stirred  the  minds  and  hearts 
of  the  suppressed  races,  who  have  found  here  the  chance  to 
grow.     The   profound   philosophy  which   is  expressed,   the 


THE  PATH  OF  PROGRESS  119 

Idealism,  the  deep  knowledge  of  life,  of  history,  and  of  the 
Issues  involved,  the  frank  and  fearless  facing  of  facts  re- 
vealed ;  these  amaze  the  average  American  who  may  partici- 
pate in  these  discussions. 

Other  Centers  of  Americanization.  The  far  reach- 
ing educational  plans  of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  and  the  Y.  W.  C.  A. 
deserve  conspicuous  mention  and  measureless  honor.  They 
have  been  pioneers  In  extending  Into  shops  and  mills  the 
classes  in  English  and  In  citizenship.  The  beautiful  idea  set 
forth  in  the  Neighbors'  League  and  the  program  of  the  Na- 
tional Americanization  Committee  are  designed  to  meet  needs 
which  some  of  the  public  agencies  cannot.  The  social  settle- 
ments, the  public  and  branch  libraries,  and  kindred  social 
agencies  have  been  dynamic  centers  of  Americanization.  They 
have  been  the  recruiting  stations  of  some  of  the  most  ardent 
lovers  of  America.  The  influence  which  has  emanated  from- 
them  cannot  be  measured.  Here  is  a  typical  instance:  A 
young  Russian  Jew  came  as  an  immigrant  to  the  city  of  Cleve- 
land. He  located  In  a  colony  on  the  lower  part  of  Woodland 
Avenue  where  the  topic  he  heard  most  discussed  was  the 
opportunity  that  America  ofiFered  for  making  money.  He 
was  shocked  by  the  frank  recognition  of  graft  and  dishonesty. 
He  found  corruption  In  the  petty  courts  and  the  debauching 
of  justice  on  the  part  of  petty  officers.  He  was  In  a  fair 
way  to  being  ruined,  when  he  was  induced  to  enter  one  of 
the  clubs  or  classes  at  Hiram  House,  the  settlement  which 
has  served  that  colony  for  a  number  of  years  as  an  interpreter 
of  our  best  American  ideals.  He  found  there  a  new  world 
opened  to  him  and  was  introduced  to  the  America  of  his 
dreams.     He  became  an  eager  seeker  after  the  best  Amer- 


122  CHRISTIAN  AMERICANIZATION 

these  matters  with  me  has  come  to  feel  deeply  his  respon- 
sibility for  the  men  in  his  employ.  Some  of  the  practical  ways 
in  which  he  has  been  able  to  help  them  are  by  advising  them 
regarding  the  investment  of  their  savings,  helping  them  to 
acquire  property  for  their  family,  and  manifesting  a  warm 
personal  interest  in  their  general  welfare.  This  firm  of 
Christian  men  has  definitely  come  to  feel  that  the  sphere  of 
largest  influence  and  service  for  Christ  is  afforded  in  busi- 
ness associations. 

We  have  nothing  but  praise  for  the  welfare  work  of  in- 
dustrial concerns  which  are  sincerely  interested  in  human 
rights  and  justice.  Many  foreign-born  workmen,  however, 
have  come  to  feel  that  it  i^  a  cheap  substitute  for  justice  and 
a  cloak  for  pitiless  greed,  and  is  used  to  cover  a  multitude 
of  sins.  Welfare  work  must  represent  sincere  interest  in 
everything  that  concerns  the  well-being  of  the  foreign-born. 
The  two  qualities  most  essential  and  the  most  difficult  to 
secure  are  imagination  and  patience.  The  corporations 
which  have  these  sufficiently  developed  will  provide  for  the 
education  of  their  employees,  help  them  to  become  more  effi- 
cient, and  discuss  with  them  the  wide  reach  of  interests  in 
which  these  workingmen  are  profoundly  concerned.  But 
first  of  all  there  must  be  established  as  fundamental  an  un- 
shakable respect  for  human  rights  and  faith  in  democracy. 

American  Home  Life.  The  most  potent  influences 
are  the  most  natural  ones.  Society  is  not  affected  by  institu- 
tions and  organizations,  by  direct  and  conscious  efforts,  so 
much  as  by  the  normal,  unconscious,  and  direct  influences 
which  emanate  from  the  home  life  of  a  community  and 
radiate    from    dynamic   personalities.      The   withdrawal   of 


THE  PATH  OF  PROGRESS  125 

these  potent  assimilating  influences  from  contact  with  the 
foreign-born  has  necessitated  the  social  settlement.  The 
Christian  home  life  of  missionaries  and  other  Christian  resid- 
ents on  the  foreign  mission  field  has  done  as  much  for 
evangelizing  heathen  lands  as  the  Interpretation  of  the  Gospel 
by  public  preaching.  Un-Christian  foreign  residents,  some 
globe  trotters,  and  other  unworthy  representatives  of  Chris- 
tian lands  have  by  the  same  power  done  much  to  retard  the 
evangelization  of  foreign  lands. 

The  influence  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Raymond  Robins  in  the 
ward  in  Chicago  in  which  they  chose  to  live  Is  an  illustra- 
tion of  what  a  Christian  home  can  mean  to  a  city  ward.  I 
have  been  told  of  a  fine  Christian  woman  In  the  city  of  Buf- 
falo, who,  instead  of  withdrawing  before  the  incoming  flood 
of  Italians  which  surrounded  her  home,  decided  to  remain 
and  live  her  life  among  them  as  an  interpreter  of  Christian 
America.  She  died  a  few  months  ago,  and  the  pastor  who 
officiated  at  the  funeral  service  in  that  home  told  me  what  a 
profound  impression  her  life  had  left  upon  that  community 
and  of  the  evidences  of  love  and  esteem  that  were  manifest 
at  the  community  funeral. 

One  of  the  most  striking  illustrations  of  the  influence 
of  the  typical  American  home  came  to  my  knowledge  from 
a  friend  in  Chicago  who  has  told  It  often  as  his  personal 
experience  of  Americanization.  He  came  from  Bohemia  and 
had  lived  for  some  time  in  Chicago.  He  was  critical  of 
American  manners  and  customs,  especially  of  political  cor- 
ruption, of  the  abuse  of  public  office,  and  of  the  whole  sordid 
business  of  our  city  politics,  as  It  was  revealed  to  him  for  the 
first  time.     The  man  was  an  idealist,  of  a  philosophical 


124  CHRISTIAN  AMERICANIZATION 

mind;  he  was  a  keen  observer  of  men  and  a  student  of  his- 
tory, with  especial  reference  to  practical  democracy.  He 
resolved  never  to  become  a  citizen  of  the  United  States. 
The  Bohemian,  German,  and  Polish  papers,  all  of  which 
he  read,  never  represented  America  in  any  other  light; 
their  stock  in  trade  was  criticism  of  American  political  and 
social  life.  After  three  years'  residence  in  Chicago,  he 
lectured  on  Austria  before  a  group  of  Americans.  One  of 
them  asked  him  why  he  did  not  become  an  American,  and 
he  publicly  denounced  American  democracy  as  inefficient  and 
corrupt.  After  a  time  he  had  occasion  to  visit  a  small  city 
in  Michigan  and  was  entertained  for  the  first  time  in  what 
he  calls  "an  Anglo-Saxon  home."  He  was  profoundly  im- 
pressed by  the  life  of  that  home,  the  freedom  of  opinion,  the 
intelligent  interest  in  public  affairs,  the  Christian  atmosphere, 
and  the  mutual  love  and  respect  of  all  the  members  of  the 
family.  He  thought  that  this  must  be  an  exceptional  family, 
but  when  his  host  took  him  to  call  upon  several  neighbors 
and  he  found  the  same  spirit  elsewhere,  his  eyes  were  opened. 
The  city  was  a  "dry"  town,  and  the  moral  order  was  some- 
thing he  had  never  seen  before.  The  jail  was  unused.  The 
people  did  not  now  take  the  trouble  to  lock  their  doors  when 
they  left  the  house.  All  the  way  back  to  Chicago  he  pon- 
dered the  amazing  revelation  of  an  America  which  he  had 
never  suspected  existed.  He  came  to  the  conclusion  that 
he  had  not  discovered  America  until  that  day.  Now  he  is 
one  of  the  most  ardent  Americans,  has  rendered  invaluable 
service  to  the  government  and  the  cause  of  Christian  demo- 
cracy,  and  is  in  the  confidence  of  some  of  the  foremost  men 
in  the  country. 


THE  PATH   OF  PROGRESS  125 

The  problem  of  Americanization  is  the  problem  of  bridg- 
ing the  chasm  between  genuine  Americans  and  these  poten- 
tial Americans. 

The  Christian  Church.  In  the  preceding  chapter, 
references  were  made  to  churches  which  use  a  foreign  lan- 
guage in  their  worship  and  in  the  proclamation  of  the  Gospel. 
It  would  be  impossible  to  estimate  the  value  of  thousands 
of  these  churches  and  of  their  contribution  to  the  enrich- 
ment of  the  life  of  America.  The  weakness  of  the  program 
of  many  churches  composed  of  members  of  foreign  birth  and 
antecedents  is  in  its  limited  range  and  scope.  It  would 
be  wholly  unjust  to  make  a  sweeping  condemnation  of  all 
pastors  of  foreign  birth  and  all  churches  of  foreign  language 
because  some  have  not  fully  measured  up  to  their  opportunity. 
The  same  would  have  to  be  said  of  many  English-speaking 
churches.  Those  who  know  anything  of  the  moral  dangers 
to  which  multitudes  of  foreign  young  men  and  young  women 
are  exposed,  the  lure  of  the  gay  lights,  the  relaxed  standards, 
and  the  withdrawal  of  the  restrictions  of  old-country  life  in 
the  freedom  of  America  know  that  these  churches  have  been 
a  conserving  social  and  moral  influence. 

There  is  grave  danger  that,  in  the  revulsion  of  feeling  and 
reaction  growing  out  of  the  disclosures  of  the  un-American 
attitude  and  the  resistance  to  American  influences  which 
have  characterized  some  foreign-language  churches,  we  shall 
go  to  an  opposite  extreme  and  underestimate  this  potent  in- 
fluence for  good  which  is  at  work  among  the  people  of  for- 
eign birth  In  the  country.  What  we  need  is  a  re-study  of 
the  problem  in  the  light  of  our  recent  experiences,  and  the 
adoption  of   a   forward-looking  and   constructive   program, 


126  CHRISTIAN  AMERICANIZATION 

for  these  churches  and  for  the  missionary  work,  through 
which  our  Christian  ideals  and  influence  are  being  extended 
to  those  sections  otherwise  untouched.  We  must  confine 
ourselves  here  to  one  aspect  of  this  matter.  We  are  con- 
sidering the  value  of  the  church  and  missionary  activities  as 
an  influence  for  promoting  assimilation.  It  is  of  funda- 
mental importance  that  we  keep  steadily  in  mind  the  fact 
that  the  foundations  of  democracy  are  in  the  character  of 
the  people.  We  cannot  have  a  democracy  on  paper.  It  must 
be  grounded  in  the  moral  character  of  free  people.  It  is 
the  business  of  the  church  to  vitalize  the  moral  life  of  the 
community  and  interpret  democracy  in  spiritual  as  well  as 
in  social  terms. 

American  conceptions  of  religion  and  the  place  which  It 
holds,  the  part  which  it  plays  in  our  social  and  civic  life, 
is  so  radically  different  from  the  conception  which  is  enter- 
tained by  the  vast  majority  of  immigrants  that  we  cannot 
interpret  America  without  interpreting  the  American  con- 
ception of  religion.  The  union  of  church  and  state,  with  the 
whole  set  of  implications  which  are  involved  in  that  rela- 
tionship, is  the  inherited  conception  of  organized  religion 
which  the  great  majority  of  the  immigrant  population  brings 
to  America.  This  preconception  is  a  positive  barrier  to 
Americanization.  The  violent  interference  with  religious 
services,  which  has  often  occurred  in  our  foreign  colonies, 
are  but  a  reflection  of  this  Imported  and  un-American  Idea 
of  religious  tyranny.  Ignorance  and  superstition,  blind  and 
unquestioning  acceptance  of  authority,  do  not  comport  with 
American  conceptions  of  religious  liberty.  Intelligent  free- 
dom of  inquiry  and  liberty  of  choice,  which  are  absolutely 


THE  PATH   OF  PROGRESS  127 

essential  to  vital  religion,  are  likewise  essential  to  the  ex- 
ercise of  democratic  responsibility.  The  atheism  and  re- 
ligious infidelity  which  have  been  imported  into  America  from 
Europe  represent  the  reaction  against  the  religious  tyranny 
and  oppression  of  centuries.  However,  the  movement  seems 
not  to  have  been  able  to  flourish  in  the  atmosphere  of  Amer- 
ican freedom.  It  perishes  because  it  has  nothing  to  feed  upon 
and  fails  in  propagation.  Progress  cannot  be  made  upon 
the  basis  of  denials  and  negations.  A  banker  in  Chicago 
resented  the  activity  of  an  influential  evangelical  minister. 
The  banker  protested  that  he  had  spent  $16,000  the  previous 
year  to  propagate  atheism  and  he  felt  that  the  propagan- 
da was  being  defeated  by  the  large-minded  and  well-organ- 
ized work  of  my  friend.  Professor  Steiner  also  bears  witness 
to  the  unfriendliness  of  our  American  atmosphere  to  atheism. 

Wholesome  religious  influences  also  make  for  higher  stan- 
dards of  living.  I  recall  a  mission  station,  located  in  one 
of  the  congested  sections  of  a  great  city,  where  the  highest 
rate  of  juvenile  delinquency  in  the  city  was  registered  and 
the  mortality  was  alarming.  As  rapidly  as  families  came 
under  the  influence  of  the  mission  and  united  with  the  parent 
church  with  which  it  was  connected,  they  straightway  re- 
moved to  other  more  desirable  sections  of  the  city.  Where 
it  is  not  possible  to  remove,  one  of  the  first  evidences  of  a 
new  religious  experience  is  the  transformation  of  living  con- 
ditions. 

What  we  have  been  considering  here  is  the  indirect  in- 
fluence upon  Americanization  that  is  exerted  by  a  vigorous 
religious  life  in  the  missions  and  churches  among  our  for- 
eign-speaking peoples.  We  must  consider  briefly  the  direct  in 


128  CHRISTIAN  AMERICANIZATION 

fluences  of  these  institutions,  organized  and  designed  to 
promote  assimilation  and  offering  a  channel  through  which 
the  American  spirit  may  be  transmitted.  The  first  requisite 
for  making  these  churches  effective  agencies  for  assimilation 
is  an  effective  leadership.  The  pastor  or  missionary  should, 
of  course,  be  a  citizen  who  regards  himself  as  an  interpreter 
of  the  American  spirit,  as  well  as  an  interpreter  of  Christ. 
We  have  too  often  been  obliged  to  emiploy  as  the  leaders  of 
these  groups  untrained  men  of  very  little  general  education 
who  had  very  little  knowledge  of  English.  Churches  in 
foreign-speaking  communities  really  require  more  than  or- 
dinarily intelligent  and  capable  leadership.  Then,  too,  the 
building  equipment  has  more  than  frequently  been  meager, 
and  our  program  confined  to  religious  services  of  worship 
and  personal  evangelism,  with  no  provision  for  education  and 
community  service.  These  churches  and  missions  must  be- 
come the  cultural  centers  of  the  community  life.  The  skill 
and  statesmanship  which  has  characterized  successful  for- 
eign mission  enterprises  must  be  enlisted  for  the  w^ide-reach- 
ing  task  of  interpreting  Christianity  and  the  American  spirit 
in  terms  that  are  not  only  comprehensible  but  also  com- 
prehensive. 

Guiding  Principles.  In  summarizing  our  study  of  the 
constructive  forces  that  may  be  relied  upon  to  promote  as- 
similation, it  is  important  th'at  we  recognize  clearly  certain 
well-defined  principles. 

The  Indirect  and  unconscious  Influences  are  the  most 
potent.  There  is  a  real  danger  that  in  our  awakened  en- 
thusiasm for  forwarding  Americanization  we  shall  attempt 
to  do  violence  to  the  psychology  of  the  foreign-born.     Men 


THE  PATH   OF  PROGRESS  129 

cannot  be  bludgeoned  into  loving  America  or  Into  possession 
of  the  American  spirit.  Too  much  self-consciousness  Is  un- 
healthful.  High-pressure  revival  methods  cannot  make  up 
for  past  neglect.  Fervid  oratory  and  argument  cannot  be 
relied  upon  to  achieve  what  must  come  In  natural  ways. 

Everything  which  enhances  the  welfare  of  the  Immigrant 
community,  family,  or  Individual,  promotes  assimilation. 
Prosperity,  the  consciousness  of  progress,  self-respect,  and 
w^ell-belng,  are  all  In  favor  of  assimilation.  They  are  as  es- 
sential as  the  element  of  temperature  In  chemical  reactions. 
When  the  temperature  Is  at  the  correct  point,  certain  reac- 
tions may  be  expected  which  cannot  take  place  below  that 
point. 

Contact  with  wholesome  American  influences  is  absolute- 
ly necessary.  Concrete  Illustrations  of  the  American  spirit, 
the  personification  of  that  spirit,  can  be  better  understood 
than  volumes  of  profound  works  or  expositions  of  the  doc- 
trines of  democracy.  The  natural,  unstudied,  unofficial  con- 
tacts are  the  most  potent.  As  an  example  of  normal  Amer- 
ican life,  a  home  surcharged  with  the  social  spirit  is  worth 
more  than  any  settlement. 

Appreciation  of  what  the  immigrant  has  to  contribute 
is  a  psychological  expedient.  The  immigrant  brings  to 
America  much  that  America  needs,  and  he  will  receive  what 
we  have  to  give  If  we  prize  what  he  has  to  offer.  For  ex- 
ample he  can  enrich  our  dull  grayness  with  his  brighter  color 
and  his  love  of  music.  His  fine  craftsmanship  Is  needed  as 
a  rebuke  to  some  of  the  cheap  and  tawdry  machine-made 
stuff  which  we  turn  out  In  carload  lots  and  which  must  have 
an  unwholesome  Influence  on  the  men  who  do  the  work. 


130  CHRISTIAN  AMERICANIZATION 

I  think  of  the  happy  and  possibly  unexpected  result  that 
followed  an  exhibit  of  Italian  art  and  handwork.  A  woman's 
club  of  Mount  Vernon,  New  York,  arranged  for  a  loan  ex- 
hibition in  the  public  library  and  gathered  some  very  fine 
reproductions  of  Italian  art:  sculpture,  painting,  needle- 
work, costumes.  It  was  open  for  a  week  and  was  visited  by 
hundreds  of  the  residents  of  the  city.  The  Italian  popula- 
tion mingled  freely  with  others  and  seemed  overjoyed  that 
the  things  they  loved  and  admired  were  appreciated  by  the 
American  people  as  well.  The  Fourth  of  July  pageant  in 
New  York  City  in  1918  must  have  impressed  every  observer 
with  the  wealth  of  beauty  and  imagination  with  which  the 
various  racial  groups  may  enrich  America,  if  only  they  do 
not  repress  and  discard  those  elements  of  their  heritage 
which  we  have  lacked.  If  we  can  rid  ourselves  of  our  fool- 
ish conceit  and  invite  and  welcome  what  our  immigrants 
have  to  offer,  we  shall  not  only  enrich  our  national  life  but 
more  easily  and  quickly  win  acceptance  for  the  American 
ideas  which  they  should  assimilate. 

We  must  have  patience  and  maintain  an  unwavering  faith 
in  the  genius  of  our  nation  and  also  in  the  capacity  of  new- 
comers to  become  genuine  Americans.  We  have  repeatedly 
urged  patience,  and  it  is  sorely  needed  now.  In  view  of  all 
our  past  achievements  we  do  not  need  to  lose  faith.  Miss 
Abbott  makes  a  cogent  comment  concerning  the  need  of 
patience  and  time  in  getting  people  to  think  together; 
"We  should  probably  rather  seriously  disagree  among  our- 
selves about  what  these  fundamental  Americanisms  are; 
but  I  suppose  most  of  us  would  like  to  class  religious  tolera- 
tion as  one  of  them.    When  we  remember  how  long,  judged 


THE  PATH   OF  PROGRESS  131 

by  this  standard,  it  took  to  Americanize  our  Puritan  ances- 
tors, it  is  a  surprise  to  find  that  people  believe  that  such 
principles  can  be  taught  by  ten  lessons  in  Americanism."^ 

If  we  despair  now  and  resort  to  coercion  or  pressure,  we 
may  relieve  our  own  feelings,  but  we  shall  make  progress 
very  slowly  and  have  eventually  to  retrace  our  steps.  There 
is  no  such  thing  as  Americanization  in  twelve  lessons,  or 
even  in  twenty-four.  It  is  necessary  to  give  instruction,  to 
teach  English,  to  interpret  America's  aim  and  spirit,  but  the 
daily  round  of  neighborhood  life,  of  the  working  hours,  of 
contact  with  America,  are  also  indispensable.  These  things 
cannot  be  organized.  They  must  be  the  natural  expression 
of  the  social  spirit,  which  we  must  strengthen  and  enrich. 

We  need  to  cultivate  a  spirit  of  humility.  We  must 
recognize  frankly  that  America  has  not  always  been  true  to 
her  ideals  and  that  we  have  made  many  mistakes.  We  do 
not  relish  being  told  this  by  people  who  came  from  other 
lands.  I  have  writhed  as  I  have  heard  men  of  foreign  birth 
say  the  very  things  about  America  that  I  have  said.  We  all 
prefer  to  say  them  first  and  not  have  them  said  by  another. 
We  will  do  well  to  acknowledge  that  no  one  is  more  sensitive 
to  our  faults  than  we  are.  This  attitude  is  wholesome  and 
honest  and  disarms  any  suspicion  of  national  self-righteous- 
ness and  Phariseeism. 


1  Abbott,   The  Immigrant  and  the   Community,  p,  235. 


CHAPTER  VI 
THE  PRICE  OF  NATIONAL  UNITY 

THIS  Is  nothing  less  than  a  "second  chance,"  a  national 
Day  of  Grace  divinely  given. 
The  war  has  so  nearly  stopped  the  flow  of  the  im- 
migrant stream  that,  for  the  first  time  in  a  generation,  we 
have  been  given  a  much-needed  breathing  spell.  Also,  as  we 
have  seen,  the  war  has  furnished  the  supreme  test  of  our 
policy,  disclosed  its  defects,  and  revealed  the  weak  points 
in  the  alignment  and  coordination  of  those  agencies  and  forces 
upon  which  we  must  rely.  We  have  experienced  an  arrest 
of  attention,  a  profound  shock  to  our  sensibilities.  We  have 
awakened  from  our  national  indifference,  from  the  tendency 
to  evade  responsibility  and  put  our  faith  in  luck. 

But  the  deepest  significance  of  this  Day  of  Grace  is  to  be 
found  in  the  fact  that  in  some  miraculous  way  society  and 
long-established  institutions  seem  suddenly  to  have  become 
plastic,  almost  fluid.  Conservatism  has  melted,  and  minds 
that  seemed  hermetically  sealed  to  new  ideas  have  mysteri- 
ously opened  at  some  secret  "sesame"  which  has  worked  a 
magic  transformation.  We  are  not  so  foolish  as  to  imagine 
that  human  nature  has  suddenly  and  unconsciously  been  re- 
generated and  that  selfishness  has  been  transfigured  into 
saintliness.  Many  of  our  mistakes  and  follies  in  the  past 
have  been  due  to  ignorance  and  preoccupation,  to  narrow 
views  of  history,  and  to  a  wrong  philosophy  of  racial  super- 

133 


134  CHRISTIAN  AMERICANIZATION 

iorities  and  priorities.  It  is  in  a  new  openness  of  mind  on 
the  part  of  multitudes  of  people  who  really  love  their  fellow 
men  and  are  devoted  to  their  country  that  we  place  our  faith. 
Upon  their  enlistment  we  base  our  hope  of  achieving  national 
unity.  We  can  realize  this  hope,  if  we  are  willing  to  pay  the 
price,  but  we  cannot  realize  it  on  any  other  terms.  It  will 
cost  us  much,  but  it  will  be  worth  all  it  costs.  If  we  do  not 
falter,  those  who  come  after  us  will  rise  up  and  call  us 
blessed.  This  "second  chance"  has  been  given  us  to  make  for 
our  children  and  children's  children,  a  better  world  in  which 
to  live. 

National  Morale.  We  have  consistently  maintained 
that  Americanization  is  not  a  war  issue  but  is  related  to  the 
entire  process  of  growing  national  solidarity  and  deepening 
self-consciousness.  A  far-seeing  program  of  reconstruction 
must  give  a  prominent  place  to  the  development  and  co- 
ordination of  those  agencies  which  promote  assimilation. 
Not  only  have  we  gained  a  sharper  definition  of  the  es- 
sential issues  and  a  truer  estimate  of  the  potencies  of  the 
agencies  at  work,  but  we  have  experienced  an  immense  re- 
enforcement  of  the  national  morale.  During  the  past  four 
years  we  have  learned  that,  before  battles  are  won  or  lost  on 
the  field  of  Mars,  they  are  lost  or  won  in  the  souls  of  the 
army  and  of  the  nation.  Morale  is  what  Bismarck  would 
have  called  an  "imponderable,"  but  we  know  that  it  is  an 
asset  of  supreme  importance.  In  the  conflict  of  the  forces 
which  are  contending  for  mastery  in  America,  national  unity 
will  win  the  victory  only  upon  the  condition  that  we  are 
able  to  maintain  the  high  morale  of  this  hour  of  triumph. 

Without  attempting  anything  like  an  analysis  of  our  na- 


THE  PRICE  OF  NATIONAL  UNITY  135 

tional  mind,  let  us  consider  some  of  the  facts  that  bear  direct- 
ly upon  this  problem. 

A  New  National  Faith.  Professor  Usher  says,  "A 
nation  becomes ...  a  great  factor  in  human  development  as 
much  by  the  splendor  of  its  ideals  as  by  reason  of  its  actual 
achievement."^  One  great  benefit  to  us,  as  a  people — perhaps 
the  greatest  benefit  following  the  war — is  a  new-born  faith 
in  ourselves  as  a  nation. 

This  experience  is  not  by  any  means  peculiar  to  America; 
Canada,  Australia,  and  New  Zealand,  as  well  as  some  older 
countries,  have  had  the  same  experience.  But  while  it  is 
not  peculiar  to  America  it  is  a  new  experience  for  us. 
Nothing  like  this  has  ever  come  to  us  before.  We  have  en- 
dured a  reputation  for  boastfulness  which  possibly  we  do 
not  deserve.  We  talk  more  freely  than  some  other  nations. 
People  who  talk  a  good  deal  are  naturally  liable  to  say  more 
foolish  things  than  people  who  do  not  talk  so  freely.  We 
knew  our  power  in  a  general  way,  but  we  had  never  ex- 
perienced a  consciousness  of  moral  and  spiritual  power  in 
any  degree  commensurate  with  what  has  come  to  us  in  this 
self-discovery.  If  we  have  been  accorded  a  place  of  great 
moral  influence,  no  one  has  been  more  surprised  than  our- 
selves. The  behavior  of  our  army  and  navy,  the  work  of  our 
food  commission  and  of  the  national  service  agencies,  have 
all  been  such  as  to  make  us  justly  proud,  while  detracting 
not  one  whit  from  the  appreciation  due  to  England,  France, 
Italy,  and  other  heroic  allies,  such  as  Belgium  and  Serbia. 

It  is,  however,  the  qualities  we  have  discovered  in  our- 
selves, our  capacity  to  rise  to  lofty  heights  and  our  sustained 
determination  upon  a  volunteer  basis  of  sacrifice,  that  have  re- 

1  Usher,  The  Rise  of  the  American  People,  p.  3. 


136  CHRISTIAN  AMERICANIZATION 

vealed  a  unity  of  spirit  and  a  moral  quality  that  gives  us  an 
Immense  new  hope  for  the  future.  We  have  loved  America 
and  believed  in  America,  but  we  feel  that  we  have  risen  to  a 
higher  plane  and  can  never,  must  never,  allow  ourselves  to  be 
content  with  material  prosperity.  Although  we  have  not  at- 
tained our  Ideals,  the  splendor  of  them  has  meant  the  moral 
reenforcement  of  the  world  in  the  supreme  hour  of  its  crisis. 
We  may,  therefore,  go  forw^ard,  with  humility  but  with 
fresh  courage,  to  undertake  the  completion  of  our  task,  the 
building  of  a  nation  which  all  the  world  will  trust  and 
respect. 

A  New  International  Sympathy.  It  would  hardly 
be  possible  to  overestimate  the  mental  and  moral  value  of 
the  lessons  which  we,  as  a  people  have  learned  through  the 
events  of  the  past  few  years. 

There  have  been  but  few  people  in  the  country  who  pos- 
sessed the  "international  mind.*'  We  were  not  in  the  habit  of 
thinking  in  international  terms,  because  we  had  lived  so 
much  apart  from  other  nations.  That  part  of  our  popula- 
tion which  could  ailord  to  travel  abroad  has,  as  a  rule,  kept 
to  the  beaten  lines.  Our  tourists  have  not  been  concerned 
particularly  with  the  social  and  political  problems  of  the 
peoples  among  whom  they  tarried  but  for  a  few  days.  They 
did  not  grasp  the  significance  of  the  Czecho-Slovaks,  the 
aspirations  of  the  Poles,  the  Rumanians,  the  Jugo-Slavs,  or 
the  status  of  the  Italians  in  Austria.  The  immigrants  who 
came  represented  to  us  only  curiously  different  kind  of  folk, 
with  weird  tastes  for  garlic,  a  tendency  to  riot,  and  an  un- 
famillarity  with  American  manners  which  suggested  that 
they  must  be  backward  people.    What  their  presence  meant 


THE  PRICE  OF  NATIONAL  UNITY  137 

gave  us  little  concern ;  or,  if  it  troubled  us  at  all,  it  was  be- 
cause of  what  they  meant  to  us,  not  of  what  America  might 
mean  to  them.  But  through  our  experience  in  the  war,  we 
have  had  a  liberal  education  in  the  aspirations  of  peoples  we 
never  before  understood ;  an  appreciation  of  the  tragedy,  the 
struggle,  and  the  heroic  persistence  which  has  enabled  them 
to  cling  to  their  dreams  of  freedom.  We  have  discovered  a 
sense  of  kinship  which  we  had  never  suspected.  What  Amer- 
ica has  meant  to  these  foreigners,  we  have  but  just  dis- 
covered. We  find  that  here  in  America  the  fires  of  liberty  have 
been  kept  burning  until  the  hour  of  destiny  struck.  Then  these 
men,  who  seemed  so  stolid  and  strange,  were  transformed 
over  night  into  patriots  and  heroes,  and  for  the  first  time 
we  saw  them  in  their  true  light.  To-day  the  Stars  and 
Stripes  are  displayed  everywhere  in  Czecho-Slovakia.  It  is 
to  America  these  people  pay  their  tribute  of  affection  and 
gratitude,  not  simply  for  shelter  but  for  sympathetic  under- 
standing and  aid  in  their  supreme  hour. 

This  experience  must  prove  of  immense  value  to  our  na- 
tional morale.  We  must  keep  the  altar-fires  still  burning 
and  cherish  undimmed  the  new-found  sense  of  kinship.  By 
the  same  token,  we  must  think  in  different  terms  of  those 
who  are  still  with  us  and  who  have  not  yet  attained  their 
dream. 

Broadening  Experience  for  Our  Soldiers.  More 
than  2,cxx),ooo  American  men  have  been  in  France.  Still 
other  thousands  have  been  in  other  lands.  The  Y.  M.  C.  A. 
and  Red  Cross  workers,  as  well  as  numberless  other  people 
who  have  never  before  crossed  their  state  line,  have  been 
given  the  immensely  valuable  experience  of  travel,  of  meeting 


138  CHRISTIAN  AMERICANIZATION 

other  races  and  having  their  minds  opened  to  contacts  and 
to  most  rewarding  fellowship.  It  has  been  an  enlightening 
experience,  which  can  but  leave  us  with  more  catholicity  of 
spirit  and  a  broader  outlook  upon  life. 

Next  in  point  of  importance  to  our  new  faith  in  America, 
w^e  should  place  the  new  status  of  the  foreign-born  American. 
He  has  marched  and  fought,  and  his  comrades  have  died 
under  the  flag  of  his  adoption.  He  has  earned  a  new  respect, 
and  the  nation  accoids  it  to  him  w^ith  characteristic  Amer- 
ican generosity  and  appreciation.  And  alongside  the  admira- 
tion of  his  fellow  citizens  we  must  place  the  reflex  influence 
of  service  upon  the  man  himself. 

We  have  learned  that  the  basis  of  our  interest  and  love 
is  not  so  much  gratitude  for  what  others  do  for  us  as  con- 
sciousness of  what  we  have  done  for  them.  To  have  fought 
for  America  must  give  these  men  a  new  and  more  vital  in- 
terest in  America,  a  new  sense  of  proprietorship  in  the  land 
under  whose  flag  they  have  fought  and  in  whose  glory  they 
have  a  full  share.  The  casualty  lists  which  appeared  in  the 
daily  papers  gave  ample  evidence  of  the  admixture  of  many 
racial  strains  in  the  American  Army.  The  city  of  Bridge- 
port observed  Thanksgiving  Day,  191 8,  by  a  community 
service  and  published  a  list  of  the  men  of  that  city  who  had 
given  their  lives  in  the  struggle  for  democracy.  It  was  a 
striking  exhibit  of  the  racial  variations  that  had  been  blended 
to  make  the  Army  of  Liberty.  There  hangs  in  my  office  a 
service  flag  with  one  large  star,  which  represents  875  Amer- 
icans of  Italian  blood  who  went  into  the  service  from  the 
churches  and  missions  fostered  by  one  home  mission  society. 
One  American  Italian  Protestant  church  in  Syracuse  fur- 


THE  PRICE  OF  NATIONAL  UNITY  139 

nished  from  its  membership  thirty-six  men  for  military 
service,  of  whom  twenty-nine  were  in  the  American  Army 
and  seven  in  the  Italian  Army.  Of  this  number,  four  paid 
the  last  full  measure  of  devotion ;  two  were  gassed  and  lost 
their  speech ;  and  one  was  decorated  for  distinguished  service. 
Besides,  those  who  remained  at  home  did  their  full  duty  in 
the  various  drives  for  the  Liberty  Loans,  the  Red  Cross, 
and  other  causes.  The  fellowship  in  military  service  with 
native-born  men,  the  training  in  English,  and  the  conscious- 
ness of  being  accorded  recognition  as  Americans  have  given 
birth  to  a  sense  of  oneness  with  America  which  many  years 
of  ordinary  life  in  normal  times  could  hardly  have  produced. 
New  Optimism.  By  common  consent  we  are  entering 
upon  a  period  of  peace  and  of  normal  activity  in  which  we 
expect  a  thorough-going  re-study  of  our  social  relationships. 
We  hope  that,  in  accordance  with  the  experience  of  all 
modern  nations  after  a  great  war,  it  will  be  the  dawn  of  a 
new  era  in  industry  and  commerce.  The  impressive  thing 
about  our  present  hope  is  the  spirit  of  it.  Something  akin 
to  a  spiritual  revival  has  aroused  the  national  conscience. 
Nothing  seemi,  impossible.  No  hoary  conventions  claim 
respect  or  consideration.  There  is  an  almost  youthful  dis- 
regard of  the  difficulties  to  be  overcome  and  the  practical 
details  to  be  taken  into  account.  We  are  a  nation  with  a 
"heavenly  vision"  that  has  gripped  our  imagination,  with  an 
imperative  call  that  will  not  be  denied.  This  spiritual  ex- 
altation must  not  be  lost.  It  must  be  steadied  and  given 
concrete  tasks  at  once.  It  is  the  compensation  for  the  suf- 
fering and  anxiety  of  the  era  which  has  closed,  and  it  gives 
us  the  courage  and  determination  to  obey  our  heavenly  vision 


140  CHRISTIAN  AMERICANIZATION 

and  put  solid  foundations  under  that  city  celestial  which 
Cometh  down  out  of  heaven  from  God,  the  city  which  eager 
hearts  expect. 

Practical  Considerations.  We  are  sure  no  one  can 
justly  charge  that  in  this  study  we  have  Ignored  well-estab- 
lished facts  and  tendencies  or  have  shut  our  eyes  to  stern 
realities.  We  have  not,  however,  lost  sight  of  the  significant 
fact,  which  certainly  ought  to  carry  weight,  that  those  who 
know  the  people  of  foreign  birth  and  antecedents  most 
intimately  and  who,  therefore,  are  In  a  position  to  form  an 
opinion  which  has  full  value  believe  In  them  and  are  full  of 
confidence  in  the  eventual  victory.  The  task  before  us,  as 
it  is  defined  in  our  minds,  is  one  of  bridging  chasms,  estab- 
lishing right  relations,  and  demonstrating  to  the  people  of 
good-will  the  practical  possibility  of  doing  the  thing  which 
needs  to  be  done.  We  need  to  keep  in  balance  these  two  es- 
sential elements:  national  idealism  and  the  practical  aspects 
of  the  situation  with  which  we  must  deal.  Our  ideal  of 
national  unity  Is  not  to  be  achieved  by  sentimentalists  or 
theorists.  We  must  have  the  courage  to  face  all  the  facts 
and  the  faith  to  keep  our  ideals. 

Patience.  No  ceremony  or  ritual,  no  waving  of  a  fairy 
wand,  can  make  a  boy  into  a  man.  We  cannot  ignore  the 
successive  stages  through  which  one  must  pass  before  be- 
coming a  full-fledged  American.  Even  with  perfect  con- 
ditions at  every  stage,  this  is  a  process  which  inevitably  re- 
quires time.  The  present  temper  of  the  popular  mind,  as 
well  as  that  of  some  people  in  very  responsible  positions,  Is 
that  of  unreasoning  impatience.  Such  a  spirit  positively  re- 
fuses to  recognize  the  fact  that  Americanization  is  an  educa- 


THE  PRICE  OF  NATIONAL  UNITY  141 

tional  process,  a  spiritual  process,  and  involves  not  only  the 
knowledge  of  the  English  language  but  a  deep  understanding 
of  the  spirit  of  America.  One  element  of  the  price  we  must 
pay  is  patience.  As  practical  idealists,  let  us  rely  with  firm 
faith  upon  the  potency  of  our  national  spirit  and  ideals.  If 
our  conception  of  an  American  is  the  true  one,  we  must 
realize  the  practical  necessity  of  reliance  upon  spiritual  forces. 
One  cannot  grow  an  American  soul  over  night  or  in  a  year. 
We  must  not  lose  faith  in  spiritual  forces  and  processes^ 

Cooperation.  We  must  find  a  way  to  enlist  the  im- 
mense reserves  of  good-will  and  the  volunteer  service  of 
private  citizens  and  neighbors,  the  people  in  responsible  offi- 
cial positions,  the  socially  minded  men  and  women  who  help 
to  create  public  opinion  and  shape  public  sentiment.  We 
must  recognize  that  this  is  not  a  task  for  professional  social 
workers  or  salaried  missionaries.  They  are  very  necessary, 
but  we  cannot  shift  the  responsibility  from  the  shoulders  of 
society  to  the  hearts  and  minds  of  these  devoted  specialists. 
The  thing  most  needed,  perhaps,  is  guidance;  practical  and 
sane  suggestions  as  to  ways  in  which  people  may  help.  The 
program  of  Americanization  that  is  going  to  win  is  the 
program  that  is  most  natural,  simple,  and  human,  and  the 
least  self-conscious  and  advertised. 

And  may  we  frankly  recognize  this  other  fact :  there  must 
be  a  closer  coordination  of  forces.  The  organizations  which 
are  usually  distinguished  as  "social"  and  those  denominated 
"religious"  must  learn  to  respect  one  another  and  work  to- 
gether. The  task  is  not  a  monopoly  of  any  committee  or 
group ;  it  is  not  a  matter  for  the  Council  of  National  Defense 
alone,  or  even  of  the  government.    It  is  the  common  task  of 


142  CHRISTIAN  AMERICANIZATION 

all.  We  may  adapt  the  words  of  Livingstone  in  which,  dis- 
cussing the  African  slave  trade,  he  invoked  the  blessing  of 
God  upon  any  agency  which  would  enlist  to  heal  that  "open 
sore  of  the  world."  So,  too,  we  must  recognize  that  Amer- 
icanization is  neither  a  sectarian  nor  a  partisan  service,  but 
a  great  national  undertaking  that  should  enlist  every  element 
of  good-will.  Just  as  our  various  "war  drives"  made  a  place 
for  all,  so  we  must  cooperate  in  furthering  every  sane,  sound, 
and  constructive  effort  to  achieve  national  unity. 

Who  Is  My  Neighbor?  The  community  is  a  microcosm, 
a  little  world  in  itself.  It  is  the  nation  on  a  smaller  scale. 
We  should  more  properly  say  the  nation  is  only  an  enlarged 
community.  It  is  the  aggregate  of  all  the  local  commun- 
ities which  comprise  it.  The  measure  of  the  national  spirit, 
therefore,  is  the  measure  of  the  community  spirit.  The  com- 
munity is  the  unit  with  which  we  must  concern  ourselves. 
The  local  community  is  but  a  cross-section  of  the  nation. 

Our  emphasis  must  be  upon  the  community,  and  our  en- 
deavor must  be  to  strengthen  and  enrich  the  community 
spirit,  because  that  is  our  natural  point  of  contact.  We  are 
more  responsible  for  our  community  than  any  one  outside  can 
be,  and  more  responsible  for  our  own  than  for  any  other 
community.  Our  interest  in  some  other  community  cannot 
serve  as  an  excuse  for  any  neglect  of  our  own.  Many  of  us 
are  troubled  with  hypermetropia.  We  can  see  conditions 
at  a  distance  which  are  desperately  wrong,  but  we  often 
have  a  blind  spot  to  similar  conditions  which  exist  next  door 
to  us.  The  presumptions  are  always  in  favor  of  our  duty 
being  near  at  hand  and  in  the  natural  relationships  of  life; 
the  burden  of  proof  is  on  the  distant  appeal.     The  test  of 


THE  PRICE  OF  NATIONAL  UNITY  143 

our  sincerity  in  the  larger  affairs  of  the  nation  is  to  be  found 
in  our  devotion  to  the  community  where  we  live. 

In  every  community  there  is  an  immense  amount  of  latent 
good-will  which  awaits  an  opportunity  to  find  expression. 
One  of  the  most  tragic  illustrations  of  unutilized  power 
which  should  be  released  is  the  wasted  spiritual  energy  in 
our  urban  communities.  If  we  can  introduce  socially  minded 
men  and  women  to  the  common  tasks  and  make  them  con- 
scious of  the  common  weal,  we  have  taken  the  first  steps 
toward  the  creation  of  a  real  community  spirit.  The  ad- 
vantage which  has  been  gained  during  the  war  through  com- 
munity activities  must  not  be  allowed  to  lapse.  After  what 
we  have  experienced,  no  community  enterprise  should  be  al- 
lowed to  languish  for  want  of  understanding  and  apprecia- 
tion. The  school,  the  library,  the  churches,  all  furnish  points 
of  community  interest  and  must  be  held  to  the  community 
point  of  view.  The  democratic  value  of  the  local  Red  Cross 
units  can  hardly  be  overestimated.  If  society  teas  and  card 
parties  shall  now  intrude  and  monopolize  the  energy  that 
is  so  much  needed  for  the  period  of  reconstruction,  we  shall 
have  lost  much  that  we  can  ill  afford  to  lose. 

Love  with  Sincerity.  A  great  opportunity  for  service 
appeals  to  the  imagination  and  readily  arouses  the  enthusiasm 
of  people  of  fine  impulses.  There  is  a  temperament,  all 
too  common  among  good  people,  which  responds  quickly  to 
an  appeal  but  is  often  unable  to  stand  the  strain  of  the  long 
steady  grind.  As  Professor  Steiner  says,  "A  whiff  of  garlic 
can  put  a  whole  army  of  such  people  to  flight."  Only 
genuine  love  for  folk  can  meet  the  demands  of  the  situation. 
The  faddist  will  be  sure  to  work  havoc.    The  sentimentalist 


144  CHRISTIAN  AMERICANIZATION 

will  not  last.     Nothing  but  the  love  which   is  free   from 
patronage  or  condescension  will  suffice. 

I  know  of  a  young  woman  of  wealth  and  social  enthusiasm 
who  was  interested  in  working  girls.  On  one  occasion  she 
helped  to  arrange  a  social  evening  for  the  entertainment  of 
a  group  of  young  women  who  were  employed  In  various 
trades.  Good  taste  dictated  the  simple  costume  she  wore, 
and  so  perfectly  did  she  fit  Into  the  gathering  that  some  one 
innocently  asked  her  where  she  worked.  Strange  as  it  may 
seem,  she  was  very  much  incensed  and  resented  the  stupidity 
that  failed  to  distinguish  her  from  the  others  present.  She 
could  not  have  sincerely  loved  these  young  women.  They 
simply  interested  her,  and  she  found  a  certain  satisfaction  In 
her  efforts  to  "improve"  them.  But  she  was  unwilling  to 
make  a  sacrifice  or  identify  herself  with  them  in  any  vital 
way.  Without  genuine  love,  one  Is  incapable  of  deep  and 
genuine  friendliness  or  of  entering  into  sympathetic  relation- 
ship with  people  who  possess  no  special  charm.  I  like  to 
think  of  another  young  woman  who  stands  in  contrast  with 
this  make-believe  working  girl.  She  had  nearly  completed 
her  art  course  and  gave  promise  of  a  brilliant  career.  Need- 
ing a  change  on  account  of  ill  health,  she  went  into  employ- 
ment in  a  large  millinery  establishment  in  New  York  City, 
expecting  to  remain  but  a  few  weeks.  There  were  many 
other  young  women  employed  by  the  concern,  and  they  rep- 
resented the  usual  assortment  of  working-girl  types.  She 
was  the  one  cultured  Christian  young  woman  in  the  group. 
She  did  not  preach  sermons,  but  she  lived  a  life  of  rare  un- 
selfishness and  loving  comradeship.  Her  influence  became  a 
determining  factor  in  the  lives  of  the  girls,  and  they  came 


THE  PRICE  OF  NATIONAL  UNITY  145 

to  confide  in  her  and  to  accept  her  standards  as  authoritative. 
By  her  quiet  Christian  grace  and  refinement,  she  trans- 
formed  the  atmosphere  of  the  place.  She  remained  for  eight 
years,  and  when  she  retired  a  few  weeks  ago  on  account  of 
her  health,  the  firm  pleaded  with  her  to  remain  for  the  sake 
of  her  influence  and  o£Fered  her  every  financial  inducement 
saying,  "You  can  never  know  what  your  life  has  meant  to 
the  girls  in  our  employ."  The  difference  between  genuine 
love  and  sentimental  interest  will  mean  the  difference  be- 
tween success  and  failure,  between  seeing  a  thing  through 
and  giving  up  at  the  first  rebuff.  Raymond  Lull,  a  bril- 
liant young  aristocrat  who  was  the  first  missionary  to  the 
Mohammedan  world,  turned  his  back  upon  the  life  in  which 
he  was  bred  and  sought  to  regain  North  Africa  for  Christ. 
Three  times  he  was  banished ;  a  year  and  a  half  he  lay  in  a 
foul  dungeon  in  Algiers.  When  at  last,  in  defiance  of  the 
edict  of  banishment,  he  returned,  men  dragged  him  out  of 
the  city  and  stoned  him.  As  his  life  ebbed  out,  they  saw 
his  lips  move,  and  leaning  over  to  catch  his  words,  they 
heard  him  whisper,  "He  that  loves  not,  lives  not,  and  ho 
that  lives  by  the  Life  can  never  die." 

Wayside  Democracy.  He  that  goeth  forth  bearing 
precious  seed,  shall  certainly  return  again  bringing 
a  harvest  with  him.  We  are  very  properly  endeavoring  to 
organize  and  standardize  our  program  of  Americanization. 
I  would  like  to  add  to  all  the  formal  and  organized  propa- 
ganda a  plea  for  the  cultivation  of  the  habit  of  friendliness. 
I  want  to  urge  the  joy  and  zest  of  little  ventures  in  wayside 
democracy.  If  we  observe  the  number  of  chance  contacts 
that  are  brought  to  us  by  the  daily  round,  we  will  be  amazed 


146  CHRISTIAN  AMERICANIZATION 

to  find  that  we  who  represent  America  to  other  peoples  have 
innumerable  opportunities  for  radiating  the  American  spirit 
and  interpreting,  in  concrete  ways,  the  American  ideals. 

A  friend  of  mine  was  waiting  for  a  train  in  the  South 
Station,  Boston,  when  a  Swedish  immigrant  girl  inquired 
the  way  to  the  post-office.  On  being  directed,  she  asked  him 
if  he  would  guard  her  suit-case  until  she  returned.  She  was 
a  long  time  in  returning,  and  my  friend  was  embarrassed. 
To  wait  meant  not  only  to  lose  the  train,  but  to  miss  an. 
engagement.  But  to  disappoint  the  naive  faith  of  the  young 
woman  was  to  do  inestimable  damage  to  a  priceless  treasure. 
So  he  waited  and  was  rewarded  with  the  simple  gratitude  of 
the  young  woman  and  the  consciousness  of  having  saved  her 
faith  in  human  kindness.  Josiah  Strong  used  to  say  that 
an  essential  qualification  of  a  missionary  in  the  congested 
sections  of  our  great  cities  was  to  be  able  to  smile  entrancingly 
in  all  languages.  A  woman  of  my  acquaintance,  passing  oa 
the  street  some  Italian  children  with  their  arms  full  of 
flowers,  smiled  upon  them  as  was  her  wont,  for  sheer  love 
of  children.  A  half  block  farther  on  she  was  overtaken  by 
one  of  them,  who  had  run  back  and  thrust  a  rose  into  her 
hand,  saying,  *'This  is  for  you."  A  Christian  woman  was 
waiting  for  a  train  in  the  New  Haven  station  one  night, 
and  noticing  bvo  perturbed  women,  a  young  woman  and  an 
older  woman  who  appeared  to  be  her  mother,  smiled  kindly 
and  invited  the  question,  "Can  you  tell  me  when  the  next 
train  goes  to  Boston?"  Inquiry  was  made  and  the  informa- 
tion given,  and  so  the  way  was  open  for  a  further  friendly 
word.  The  women  proved  to  be  Syrians,  and  they  had  gone 
to  Bridgeport  to  attend  a  funeral.     They  were  very  tired 


THE  PRICE  OF  NATIONAL  UNITY  147 

and  would  not  reach  Boston  until  the  next  morning.  Sud- 
denly the  young  woman  took  the  lady's  hand  and  said  with 
great  earnestness,  "Oh,  I  wish  I  knew  you!"  They  exchanged 
addresses  and  later  exchanged  letters,  and  each  life  was  en- 
riched by  the  little  adventure  in  Christian  democracy. 

We  have  repeatedly  emphasized  the  importance  of  recog- 
nizing that  democracy  is  not  simply  a  form  of  govern- 
ment, but  the  spirit  of  society.  If  we  will  cultivate  the  habit 
of  friendliness  and  helpfulness  in  our  daily  contacts  with 
those  who  are  learning  Americanism,  we  will  become  living 
lessons  in  the  American  spirit.  As  it  is,  we  do  not  realize 
how  often  we  confirm  the  suspicion  in  the  minds  of  the 
foreign-bom,  that  democracy  is  only  a  glittering  generality. 
"Nor  knowest  thou  what  argument 
Thy  life  to  thy  neighbor's  creed  hath  lent."^ 

To  democratize  and  Christianize  our  contacts  is  to  be- 
come a  radiating  center  of  the  American  spirit. 

Organized  Christianity.  We  have  been  dwelling  up- 
on the  privilege  and  responsibility  of  individuals  for  service 
in  behalf  of  national  unity.  It  is  fitting  that  we  shall  bring 
our  study  to  a  close  by  a  frank  and  serious  consideration  of 
the  privilege  and  responsibility  of  organized  Christianity 
for  the  achievement  of  the  ideal  which  we  cherish.  In  the 
judgment  of  most  thoughtful  men,  the  church  is  the  institu- 
tion upon  which  we  must  rely  to  keep  the  moral  and  spiritual 
ideals  of  the  nation  pure  and  to  vitalize  the  national  con- 
science. Professor  Masaryk,  the  president  of  the  new  Czecho- 
slovak Republic,  is  reported  to  have  said  that  the  thing 
which  most  impressed  him  about  American  democracy  was 
its  moral  power.    Coming  from  a  profound  student  of  his- 

1  Emerson,  Each  and  All. 


148  CHRISTIAN  AMERICANIZATION 

tory  and  a  man  of  keen  philosophic  mind,  this  observation 
is  worthy  of  consideration.  We  know  that  there  can  be  no 
sustained  moral  enthusiasm,  no  supreme  spiritual  earnest- 
ness that  is  not  inspired  by  a  profound  religious  faith.  The 
church  has  a  great  part  to  play  in  maintaining  the  morale 
which  will  make  the  period  of  reconstruction  fruitful  of  the 
greatest  good. 

A  Test  of  Spiritual  Health.  Only  a  spiritually  dead 
church  could  be  indifFerent  to  the  social  issues  of  this  pre- 
sent fateful  era.  The  test  of  the  spiritual  power  of  the 
church  is  the  sympathy  that  is  generated  in  behalf  of  those 
who  need  her  ministry.  As  the  church  has  a  responsibility 
to  maintain  the  moral  vitality  of  the  nation,  so  she  has  a 
responsibility  to  keep  the  social  sympathies  full  and  strong 
and  true. 

In  his  Short  History  of  the  English  People,  John  R. 
Green,  attributes  to  the  Wesleyan  revival  a  social  regenera- 
tion which  we  may  well  recall  whenever  we  are  inclined 
to  lose  sight  of  the  relation  of  religious  life  to  social 
conditions.  He  says:  "In  the  nation  at  large  appeared 
a  new  moral  enthusiasm,  which,  rigid  and  pedantic  as  it 
often  seemed,  was  still  healthy  in  its  social  tone  and  whose 
power  was  seen  in  the  disappearance  of  the  profligacy  which 
had  disgraced  the  upper  classes,  and  the  foulness  which  had 
infested  literature  ever  since  the  Restoration.  A  yet  nobler 
result  of  the  religious  revival  was  the  steady  attempt,  which 
has  never  ceased  from  that  day  to  this,  to  remedy  the  guilt, 
the  ignorance,  the  physical  suffering,  the  social  degradation 
of  the  profligate  and  the  poor.  It  was  not  till  the  Wesleyan 
impulse  had   done  its  work,   that  the  philanthropic  move- 


THE  PRICE  OF  NATIONAL  UNITY  149 

ment  began.  The  Sunday-schools,  established  by  Mr. 
Raikes  of  Gloucester  at  the  close  of  the  century,  were  the 
beginnings  of  popular  education.  A  passionate  impulse 
of  human  sympathy  with  the  wronged  and  afflicted  raised 
hospitals,  endowed  charities,  built  churches,  sent  missionaries 
to  the  heathen,  supported  Burke  in  his  plea  for  the  Hindu 
and  Clarkson  and  Wilberforce  in  their  crusade  against  the 
iniquity  of  the  slave  trade."  He  adds  a  fine  tribute  to  the 
heroic  work  of  John  Howard,  whose  efforts  in  behalf  of 
prison  reform  eventually  cost  him  his  life.  John  Howard 
lighted  his  torch  at  the  same  altar  fires  which  the  spiritual 
revival  had  kindled. 

Recruiting  Workers.  The  atmosphere  of  a  spiritually 
and  socially  minded  church  is  an  atmosphere  of  service  and 
heroic  chivalry.  The  outlet  for  this  impulse  and  devotion 
upon  which  the  church  has  placed  the  greatest  emphasis  has 
been  the  Christian  ministry  and  foreign  missions.  Yet  from 
the  church  have  gone  forth  social  missionaries  who  have 
caught  their  inspiration  for  service  and  received  their  call, 
under  the  same  divine  spell.  The  church  has  lost  much, 
whenever  she  has  failed  to  recognize  the  consecration  and 
devotion,  the  beauty  and  power,  the  moral  grandeur  and  value 
to  the  kingdom  of  God,  of  the  labors  and  lives  of  these  social 
missionaries.  I  shall  never  forget  the  distress  of  a  young 
woman,  who  told  me  of  her  keen  disappointment  that  her 
church  so  utterly  failed  to  appreciate  what  she  was  doing  as 
a  parole  officer  of  the  juvenile  court  in  her  city.  She  wanted 
to  feel  that  in  the  social  prayer  service  she  might  bring  the 
problems  and  burdens  of  her  work  to  the  attention  of  the 
church,  be  refreshed  and  strengthened  by  their  understand- 


150  CHRISTIAN  AMERICANIZATION 

ing  and  sympathy,  and  find  a  place  in  their  intercession. 
The  church  in  its  preaching  service  is  generating  service- 
power,  s}TT»pathy,  and  unselfishness;  yet  it  often  fails  to  direct 
the  awakened  impulses  and  enlist  the  splendid  abilities  which 
are  so  greatly  needed  in  the  community.  Failure  on  the 
part  of  some  churches  to  consider  the  public  welfare  as  a 
legitimate  field  of  service  accounts  for  the  gulf  which  exists 
between  organized  Christianity  in  our  churches  and  organ- 
ized social  agencies  which  are  rendering  service  in  the  spirit 
of  Christ,  though  sometimes  with  little  cooperation  or  recog- 
nition on  the  part  of  the  church.  The  service  which  is 
needed  to  make  a  sane  Americanization  program  effective 
calls  for  an  army  of  recruits  of  which  the  church  must 
furnish  her  full  share  and  inspire  with  the  same  lofty  spirit 
of  Christian  service  and  sacrifice  which  has  characterized 
so  much  of  the  history  of  the  past  four  years. 

Democracy  a  Christian  Conception,  The  social  and 
political  conception  of  the  rights  of  man,  which  we  term 
democracy,  is  primarily  a  Christian  conception.  Before  it 
was  written  into  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  it  was 
written  into  the  constitution  of  the  universe.  Democracy 
is  the  Christian  valuation  of  human  personality.  The 
Epistle  of  James  is  a  revolutionary  Christian  document  of 
the  first  century  which  proclaims  boldly  the  democracy  of 
the  Christian  church.  Paul,  writing  to  Philemon,  calls 
Onesimus,  a  Roman  slave,  the  "brother"  of  his  master.  The 
story  of  Christian  missions  in  heathen  lands  is  the  story  of 
the  faith  of  the  Christian  church  in  the  value  of  human  per- 
sonality. The  Christian  church  was  designed  to  be  a  working 
model  of  the  society  which  Jesus  calls  the  kingdom  of  God. 


THE  PRICE  OF  NATIONAL  UNITY  151 

I  made  a  tour  of  a  neglected  section  of  a  city  in  the  Middle 
West,  not  long  ago,  in  conference  with  a  local  pastor  who 
had  upon  his  heart  the  burden  of  this  district.  The  streets 
swarmed  with  little  children;  evidences  of  need  abounded 
everywhere  with  no  religious  institution  of  any  description. 
I  asked  if  it  were  not  possible  to  enlist  the  united  support  of 
all  the  local  churches  in  a  concerted  affort  to  meet  this  need. 
He  replied  that  he  had  endeavored  to  do  so  without  success, 
and  then  told  me  that  one  of  the  pastors  had  declined  to  co- 
operate, saying,  '*I  am  on  a  still  hunt  for  substantial  people." 
A  local  church  must  choose  between  being  an  exclusive  re- 
ligious club,  patronized  by  "substantial  people,"  with  a 
private  chaplain  for  a  minister,  and  being  a  church  of  Jesus 
Christ,  who  ''came  not  to  be  ministered  unto,  but  to  minister, 
and  to  give  his  life  a  ransom  for  many."  It  cannot  be  both. 
The  two  conceptions  are  antagonistic,  irreconcilable,  and 
mutually  exclusive.  Some  one  is  reported  to  have  said,  "The 
church  can  have  the  people  any  time  it  wants  them,  but  to 
want  them  is  a  spiritual  achievement  of  a  very  high  order." 
Not  only  must  the  church  proclaim  her  faith  In  democracy 
as  a  principle;  she  must  consistently  practise  it.  Nothing 
could  be  more  un-Christlan  than  a  sentimental  Interest  In 
distant  peoples  which  fades  away  or  turns  to  Ice  upon  contact 
with  similar  people  at  home.  We  may  test  our  love  for  the 
Chinese  in  China  by  our  attitude  toward  the  Chinese  in 
America. 

In  referring  to  the  part  which  the  churches  must  play  in 
the  work  of  direct  Americanization,  I  have  had  in  mind  the 
churches  composed  of  people  of  foreign  birth  or  their  chil- 
dren.   It  would  be  a  very  grave  mistake  for  us  to  conclude 


152  CHRISTIAN  AMERICANIZATION 

that  there  is  no  direct  service  which  English-speaking 
churches,  composed  largely  of  the  older  American  elements, 
can  render  in  this  important  undertaking  of  interpreting 
Christian  ideals  and  our  American  spirit.  While,  in  more 
clearly  defined  colonies  in  which  they  have  settled,  it  is 
natural  for  immigrants  to  worship  in  churches  composed  al- 
most wholly  of  their  own  countrymen,  such  churches  by  no 
means  meet  the  religious  needs  of  all  the  peoples  of  foreign 
birth,  nor  do  they  promise  the  best  results  for  Americaniza- 
tion. These  churches  have  perhaps  the  greatest  service  to 
render,  or  more  accurately  we  may  say  that  in  all  probability 
they  will  minister  to  the  largest  numbers;  but  we  cannot 
rely  upon  them  to  do  all  of  this  work  because  they  do  not 
and  cannot  reach  all  the  people  who  need  to  be  ministered  to. 
English-speaking  churches  by  the  thousands  are  not  only 
passing  by  a  great  opportunity  but  in  many  instances  are 
deliberately  refusing  to  bear  their  share  of  the  community 
responsibility.  A  casual  canvass  or  survey  of  the  parishes  of 
many  thousands  of  our  English-speaking  churches  would  dis- 
close the  fact  that  within  the  natural  field  of  influence  and 
the  community  reach  of  these  churches  there  are  many  for- 
eign-born residents  and  residents  of  the  second  generation 
of  foreign  antecedents,  who  are  practically  untouched  by 
their  ministry. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  are  glorious  and  inspiring  ex- 
amples of  English-speaking  churches  which  have  succeeded 
in  rendering  most  helpful  and  rewarding  service  to  these 
people.  There  are  many  thousand  Christian  Chinese  in 
America,  and  the  majority  of  them  have  been  won  to  Christ 
through  the  English-speaking  churches  and  Sunday-schools 


THE  PRICE  OF  NATIONAL  UNITY  153 

and  the  personal  service  of  individuals  who  have  done  in- 
tensive work  in  teaching  English.  There  is  a  strong  church 
in  Connecticut  which  Ln  one  year  baptized  more  than  twenty 
Chinese,  and  among  its  membership  are  numbered  some  of 
the  leading  Chinese  businessmen  of  that  city.  There  is  an 
English-speaking  church  in  California  which  had,  accord- 
ing to  the  latest  report,  eighteen  Japanese  members.  They 
were  won  for  the  Christian  faith  by  the  personal  service  and 
loving  intercession  of  one  Christian  woman.  I  shall  never 
forget  the  personal  testimony  of  a  bright  young  Japanese 
who  for  two  years  had  declined  every  invitation  to  attend 
her  English  Bible  class  and  finally,  when  he  could  no  longer 
resist,  went  away  alone  into  the  mountains  to  think  over 
this  amazing  love  and  patience  which  would  not  be  denied. 
When  he  had  reached  the  conclusion  that  the  explanation  of 
this  woman's  persistence  must  lie  in  her  Christian  faith,  he 
returned  to  town,  procured  a  copy  of  the  New  Testament, 
and  shut  himself  up  in  the  seclusion  of  his  room  for  a  week 
in  an  earnest  endeavor  to  discover  the  secret.  At  the  end 
of  that  week  he  sought  the  pastor  of  the  church  of  which 
this  Christian  woman  was  a  member  and  asked  for  Chris- 
tian baptism.  When  the  pastor  had  explained  the  way  of 
God  more  perfectly  and  satisfied  himself  as  to  the  genuine- 
ness of  the  young  man's  Christian  experience,  he  was  re- 
ceived and  later  baptized.  Among  the  eighteen  Japanese 
members  is  a  graduate  of  the  Imperial  University  of  Japan, 
and  all  of  them  are  young  men  of  parts  and  high  promise. 
I  have  been  deeply  impressed  with  the  fact  that  many  of 
the  capable  leaders  in  the  ministry  who  are  serving  our  for- 
eign-speaking congregations  were  converted  in  our  English- 


154  CHRISTIAN  AMERICANIZATION 

speaking  churches.  I  am  further  impressed  that  they  have, 
as  a  rule,  an  outlook  and  appreciation  of  fundamental  Amer- 
icanism which  sometimes  is  missing  when  the  contact  with 
older  Americans  is  lost  or  cannot  be  enjoyed. 

The  churches  in  the  communities  where  there  are  for- 
eign-born residents  must  be  judged  by  their  fruits.  The  bar- 
riers are  strong  and  difficult  to  overcome,  but  they  can  be 
surmounted  if  there  Is  sufficient  love  and  faith  and  patience. 
A  member  of  a  foreign-speaking  church  In  one  of  our  cities 
complained  not  long  ago  that  her  neighbor,  an  American 
woman  who  belonged  to  the  same  denomination  but  to  an- 
other local  church,  did  not  speak  to  her.  It  is  not  so  much 
what  occurs  within  the  walls  of  the  church  building  that 
will  interpret  Christ  and  the  American  spirit,  as  the  every- 
day neighborliness  and  human  kindness  which  seems  to  be 
and  is  the  natural  fruit  of  loving  hearts. 

The  Mind  of  Christ.  The  church  has  this  unique 
prerogative.  She  may  speak  for  Christ.  When  the  church 
reflects  his  mind  and  radiates  his  spirit,  she  renders  the  high- 
est possible  service  to  society.  It  is  not  necessary  for  the 
church  to  attempt  to  duplicate,  or  parallel,  the  work  of  such 
splendidly  endowed  and  organized  agencies  as  the  various 
foundations,  which  have  been  conceived  by  public-spirited 
men  and  women  and  which  have  enlisted  the  best  skill  and 
talent  in  the  task  of  making  social  studies  and  promoting 
social  education.  The  church  has  the  exalted  privilege  of 
interpreting,  not  the  social  philosophy  of  any  particular 
school  or  party,  but  the  mind  of  Christ.  That  mind  which 
was  in  Christ  was  free  from  all  subtleties  or  evasions,  free 
from  all  compromises  and  expediencies.  His  was  the  spiritual 


THE  PRICE  OF  NATIONAL  UNITY  155 

mind  as  reflected  in  his  sense  of  values,  in  his  certainty  of 
spiritual  realities,  and  his  unfaltering  reliance  on  spiritual 
forces.    Jesus  had  the  social  mind.     He  had  not  only  social 
sympathy  and  loved  folks  and  the  society  of  his  fellows,  but 
he  gave  to  social  obligations  the  authority  of  duty  to  God  and 
made  fidelity  to  them  the  final  test  of  love  to  himself.     He 
had  the  universal  mind,  above  race  and  class  prejudice.  He 
included  all  men  in  his  love  and  was  content  with  nothing 
less  than  the  whole  world  as  the  subject  of  his  redemption. 
Many   unreasonable   demands   are  made   upon   the  church, 
and  she  is  called  upon  to  bear  much  undeserved  criticism  and 
censure  because  of  her  failure  to  do  this  particular  thing  or 
that,  for  which  advocates  of  various  causes  claim  the  official 
and  organized  support  of  the  church.     She  is  expected  to 
foster  every  good  cause  and  endorse  every  movement  which 
promises  to  promote  the  public  welfare.     In  reality  this  is 
an  unintended  tribute  to  the  moral  and  spiritual  leadership 
of  the  church.     It  is  doubtless  impossible  to  agree  among 
ourselves  as  to  just  what  official  action  the  church  or  the 
churches  should  take  on  many  of  the  vital  social  and  political 
questions  of  the  nation  and  the  local  community.     But  of 
one  thing  there  can  be  no  shadow  of  doubt  nor  note  of 
disagreement.     It  is  the  prerogative  of  the  church  to  speak 
for  Christ  with  prophetic  authority,  and  amid   distracted 
counsels  and  cries  of  "Lo  here!'*  or  "Lo  there!"  she  must 
confidently  and  steadily  reflect  and  interpret  the  mind  of 
Christ  and  radiate  his  life-giving  spirit. 

As  a  nation  we  are  committed  irrevocably  to  the  separa- 
tion of  church  and  state;  but  that  does  not  involve  the 
divorcement  of   religion   from   the   national  life.     In   this 


156  CHRISTIAN  AMERICANIZATION 

supreme  hour  in  our  history  it  is  for  the  Christian  church 
to  interpret  afresh  our  democracy  and  our  destiny  in  accord- 
ance with  the  mind  of  Christ.  In  the  need  of  the  nation  for 
men  and  women  who  will  interpret  its  spirit  and  ideals 
aright,  there  is  the  call  of  a  great  opportunity  to  render 
service  to  the  land  we  love.  But  above  that,  and  more 
compelling,  is  the  call  of  Christ  in  the  humanity  about  us, 
to  interpret  him  and  impart  his  spirit.  In  the  last  analysis, 
w^hat  we  call  "the  immigrant  problem"  is  just  the  personal 
life  problem  of  a  great  many  very  lovable  men  and  women 
and  boys  and  girls  who  are  all  about  us  and  who  need 
friends.  And  you  and  I  are  the  ones  who  must  meet  that 
need.  We  are  told  that  in  the  Alps  there  is  a  hospice  de- 
dicated to  wayworn  travelers,  especially  those  who  have 
lost  their  way.  Those  who  serve  and  keep  vigil  are  in- 
structed that,  whenever  at  any  hour  of  the  day  or  night  a 
traveler  may  be  brought  in,  they  shall  summon  the  Mother 
Superior  with  the  w^ords,  *'The  Master  is  come  and  calleth 
for  thee."  St.  Paul,  who  so  truly  reflects  the  mind  and 
spirit  of  Christ,  considered  himself  as  a  debtor  to  all  men 
who  needed  what  he  had,  just  because  he  had  what  they 
needed.  Let  us,  like  him,  reply  to  every  need,  "As  much  as 
in  me  lies,  I  am  ready," 


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Houghton,  Mifflin  Company,  New  York.    $1.50. 
Harbor,    The,    Ernest    Poole.      1917.      The    Macmillan    Company, 

New  York.     $1.50. 
Just  Folks,  Edgar  Albert  Guest.     1917.     Reilly  and   Briton,   1006 

South  Michigan  Avenue,    Chicago,   Illinois.     $1.25    and  $2.50. 
Leaven  in  a   Great  City,  Lillian  W.  Betts.     1902.     Dodd,   Mead 

and  Company,  New  York.     $1.50. 
Scum  0*  the  Earth,  Robert   Haven   Schauffler.     Houghton   Mifflin 

Company,   New   York.     $1.00. 
Work-a-Day    Girl,    The,    Clara    Laughlin.      1913.      Fleming    H. 

Revell  and  Company,  New  York.    $1.50. 


Materials  for  the  Study  of 
CHRISTIAN  AMERICANIZATION 

FOR  ADULTS 

Christian  Americanization:  A  Task  for  the  Churches. 
By  Charles  A.  Brooks,  D.  D. 

Price,  cloth,  75  cents;   paper,  40  cents. 
Suggestions  to  Leaders  of  Discussion  Groups.    Price,  10  cents. 
Teachers'  Supplement.     Price,  5  cents. 
Bible  Readings. 

Arranged  by  Mrs.  Ida  V.  Harrison. 
Price,  15  cents. 

FOR  JUNIORS 

Called  to  the  Colors 

By  Martha  Van  Marter. 

Price,  cloth,  45  cents;  paper,  29  cents. 
Leaders'  Manual  for  Called  to  the  Colors 

By   Margaret  Applegarth.     Price,   10   cents. 
A  Take-home  Envelope 

By  Margaret  Applegarth.     Price,  10  cents. 
Americans  All:  Stories  to  Tell. 
By  Augusta  Huiell  Seaman. 

Price,  paper,  40  cents. 
Picture  Sheets  to  accompany  Americans  All. 
Children  of  the  City 
Mexicans  in  the  United  States 
Orientals  in  America 
Price,  15  cents  each. 
Little  Neighbors:  Picture  Story  Set 
By  Elizabeth  Colson 

For  teachers.  Six  pictures  and  six  stories  (Eskimos, 
Indians,  Mexicans,  Negroes,  the  children  of  our  South- 
ern Mountains,  and  those  in  our  big  hospitals).  Price, 
30  cents. 

DRAMATIC  MATERIAL 

A  Pageant  of  Democracy. 

May  be  simply  or  elaborately  presented. 
Price,  15  cents. 

Order  from  Your  Denominational  Headquarters 

All  prices  include  postage. 
161 


Y     Title  of  the  Previous 
Home  Mission  Study  Courses 


For  Adults 

Under  Our  Flag.  By  Alice  M.  Guernsey. 

The  Call  of  the  Waters.     By  Katharine  R.  Crowell. 

From  Darkness  to  Light.    By  Mary  Helm. 

Conservation  of  National  Ideals.    A  Symposium. 

Mormonism,  the   Islam    of   America.     By   Bruce   Kin- 
ney, D.D. 

The  New  America.     By  Mary  Clark  Barnes  and  L.  C. 
Barnes,  D.  D. 

America,  God's  Melting  Pot.    By  Laura  Gerould  Craig, 

In  Red  Man's  Land.     A  Study  of  the  American  Indian. 
By  Francis  E.  Leupp. 

Home  Missions  im  Action.    By  Edith  H.  Allen. 

Old  Spain  in  New  America.     By  Robert  McLean,  D.D. 
and  Grace  Petrie  Williams. 

Missionary  Milestones.    By  Margaret  R.  Seebach. 

The  Path  of  Labor.    A  Symposium. 

For  Juniors 

Best  Things  in  America.     By  Katharine  R.  Crowell. 
Some  Immigrant  Neighbors.     By  John  R.  Henry,  D.D. 
GooDBiRD  THE  INDIAN.     By  Gilbert  L.  Wilson. 
Comrades  from  Other  Lands.     By  Leila  Allen  Dimock. 
All  Along  the  Trail.     By  Sarah  Gertrude  Pomeroy. 
Children  of  the  Lighthouse.    By  Charles  L.  White. 
Bearers  of  the  Torch.    By  Katharine  R.  Crowell. 
Jack-of-All-Trades.     By    Margaret   Applegarth, 


162 


Princeton  Theological  Semmarv   Li^u.^n,^^ 


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